


TRON: Revolution

by Nhaz



Category: Tron - All Media Types, Tron: Uprising
Genre: Canon Continuation, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-09-10
Updated: 2014-11-14
Packaged: 2018-02-25 18:28:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 24,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2631854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nhaz/pseuds/Nhaz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>TRON: Uprising didn't get a sequel. This is my take on it. Picks up right after the end of "Terminal".</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

"The Uprising has begun."

Tron's words echoed through Beck's mind. All the struggles and efforts, all victories against the Occupation, however small, were finally paying off. The Renegade had succeeded in his first grand task – to show the programs of Argon that they could and should stand for themselves. And though most of them did not believe him to be Tron, one thing they knew – Tron lived and was on their side.

The pair watched in silence as Pavel and his black guards marched to their recognizers and took off, sudden fear displayed on the face of the sycophantic commander. The mechanics in the garage traced the ominous ships as they drifted away and then started to cheer. Some were clapping, others began throwing their discs into the air.

"You rock, Mara!", came a shout from Link. Several programs immediately started chanting her name. Confusion overwhelmed the blue-haired girl, threatening to turn into panic. She knew she had to say something, remind them that the fight is not yet over, but no one would listen now. They were reveling in their freedom and she couldn't blame them. But if the fight was not continued soon, this freedom would be short-lived. And yet, she was no one special, just a young girl. She couldn't possibly lead them. The girl froze in horror as the realization hit her.

"What have I done?"

She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see Zed giving her a reassuring smile.

"Guys!", his voice rose over the chants and yells, "it's true, we're free now. But this is not the end of it, just the beginning! If we don't want to end up crushed under Tesler's boot again, we'll have to fight. And now we're not alone. Because Tron lives!"

Mara watched him with pride as he talked. Like her, Zed had come a long way since the Renegade appeared, growing from an immature and insecure program to a person who knew where he stood and would fight for it. At the beginning, he would jump every time the Occupation started a campaign against the Renegade. Now he was willing to defend the masked program with his life, had come to recognize him as their savior and Mara loved him all the more for that.

"Tanks, Zed", she said to him quietly, smiling. "I was just beginning to wonder whether or not we made the greatest mistake of our lives."

"On the contrary, Mara", Zed beamed at her, "this is the wisest thing we've ever done."

Several of the programs had walked closer to them, hesitating to speak, but the question in their eyes was as clear as a transparent voxel: "What are we going to do now?"

"We've got to see if Tron needs help", the female program now sounded strong and confident. "He may be injured or otherwise incapacitated."

She and Zed raced through the rubble towards the familiar white-suited figure who was, to their surprise, unmasked.

"Wait", Zed suddenly stopped and stared at the program before them. "Isn't that…"

"…Beck?" Mara's blue eyes were almost round now. "Could it be that it was him the whole time?"

"Either way", the male program knitted his brows "he's got a lot to explain."

* * *

It was already too late for Beck to put his mask on. His friends approached warily, with discs in their hands. It was completely understandable to him. One could expect all forms of trickery and deceit from Clu's minions, including such disguises.

"I think at least you should…" he turned to his mentor, only to see him already masked. Beck nodded in agreement. Indeed, he had much to explain before Tron could be revealed, even to his closest friends.

"Beck?" Zed had walked up to him. "Is it really you?"

"Yeah", Beck nodded. "I'm the Renegade, Zed."

"So it was you who blew up Clu's statue and then saved us from the Games and from that execution and…"

"Indeed."

Mara approached, a scowl on her face. "Just tell us you didn't kill Able", she said in a shaking voice.

Beck's expression turned grim. It pained him to reminisce of Able's death, for which he still held himself responsible, albeit indirectly. "I didn't", he finally managed to utter. "It was Cyrus."

"I was always distrustful of him, but don't think I'll take that claim without proof, Beck." Mara's scowl only deepened. "And who is this program? Another Renegade?"

"We can't talk here", Beck countered. "The Black Guards will find us any moment now. You must come with us immediately."

"Come where?" Both Zed and Mara measured their friend with gazes that didn't express as much trust as he would like.

"The Outlands. And quickly." He and Tron rezzed their light cycles, urging for Mara and Zed to hop on.

* * *

General Tesler paced around in his throne room like a cornered predator. Rage was overwhelming him, causing him to forsake his usual calm demeanor.

"What was that ship doing in my city?" Anger and fear were present in equal measures in his voice. "I want answers and I want them now."

Paige just stood, just as clueless as he was. There was nothing for her to do but listen to the general's tirade.

"Where did that monstrosity come from and why didn't I know about it?" Tesler was evidently losing control of his emotions.

Paige had but one answer for her general and not a comforting one. She took a deep breath.

"I don't know, General. But if I had to guess…" She handed him the message card she had just received. The bright yellow circuitry was leaving no doubt of the sender's identity. Tesler's features shifted from anger to utter terror as he watched the clearing image on the card.

"Clu."

He only pronounced the name with a faint whisper.


	2. Problems Arise

They talked long, Zed and Mara asking one question after the other, and Beck felt more tired than ever. Reminiscing of Bodhi and Able's deaths was painful enough, but now he had to tell his tale from beginning to end, his friends eager to learn everything about his adventures as the Renegade.

"So why didn't you come to rescue us from that tower?" Mara's question hung in the air, her eyes nailed into Beck's, begging for some logical explanation.

"Because Cyrus left me no choice." He sighed. "I had to save…"

His friends stared into him in utter shock. He could read the feeling of betrayal on both their faces.

"Save who, Beck?" Zed insisted, his voice trembling with outrage. "Who was more important than your friends and the program who had been like a creator to you?"

"No one was more important, Zed", Beck raised his hands in a defensive gesture. "But there was more at stake…"

"You had to save who?" Mara's voice cracked like a light whip, interrupting his words.

"Tron." Beck finally said after a long pause.

Suddenly, the figure beside him, who had been sitting motionless and masked through the whole time, nodded and removed his mask.

"You are really… You live!" Both mechanics could not conceal their astonishment at the sight of the real Tron, the defender of the Grid and beacon of hope that now stood unmasked before them. "But how…"

"I took Beck for an apprentice when I saw what he did with Clu's statue and how he escaped", the older program explained. "He's been training as the Renegade ever since."

After a brief silence, Tron added:

"And I am so sorry for Able. We were friends, he and I. Were it not for me…"

"Wait, Able knew you're alive?"

"Look!", Beck pointed at the window just as Tron was preparing to answer Zed's question. The old warrior jumped from his seat and went to see what was wrong.

Wrong did not suffice to describe the situation. The sky was burning with an orange hue as a glowing cloud approached Argon. As it got closer, Beck started to see ships of all sizes and shapes: recognizers, diamond ships like the one Dyson possessed, and massive pyramid ships. They seemed to vastly outnumber the fleet Tesler had brought to the city. At the front, a small ship was flying with distinctly yellow circuitry.

Beside him, Tron was watching through his binoculars, frowning.

"What is it?", Mara asked.

"Beck", the system monitor turned to him, "remember when I fought Dyson and left him alive?"

"Yeah?"

"You do recall I told him to deliver a message?"

"What is happening?", Mara insisted, more anxiously. "What are you talking about?"

Tron sighed.

"We have received a reply."

* * *

Pavel's footsteps echoed down the corridor as he ran past the rows of black guards.

"Make way! Make way!" he shrieked, waving his hands about as if he was bugged, "I'm bringing a crucial report to General Tesler! Move, you imbeciles!"

"Sir", one of the guards barred his way with a light staff. "Access denied. No excep-"

Furious, the commander shoved the guard to the wall, choking him. His disc buzzed angrily as it approached the unfortunate program's visor. The light staff clattered on the floor and then shrunk into a baton.

"What were you saying about the access to this chamber, soldier?" Pavel's voice was as smooth as light suit code. "You should know that I'm in quite a mood for derezzing programs."

"General Tesler's orders, Sir", the guard managed to croak. "Under pain of deresolution we are not to let anyone disturb him."

Pavel withdrew his hand, letting the guard stumble on his feet and regenerate from the lack of air.

"You dropped your weapon, soldier", he quipped, then activated the staff and pointed it toward the guard.

"Sir?", the program's voice shifted to confusion and fear, even though it was distorted by the helmet.

"It is not of great consequence whether General Tesler derezzes you himself or I do the job for him", the commander coldly declared, only a moment before he jammed the staff into the guard's chest.

"Now does anyone else insist on keeping me from passing through, or should I engage in some more discipline enforcement?" Pavel's tone had shifted from deceptively soft to openly menacing and his eyes flared red. "I'd like to note that I always love a good exercise."

"Cannot override command", the guards replied, this time in unison. A wicked grin stretched across the commander's features as he raised his disc again.

"Is that so?"

The security programs, having seen Pavel's recent showdown with Paige, braced themselves. The commander grinned widely, brandishing his disc with savage glee and cackling maniacally. Red voxels rained down onto the floor as the black guard before him disintegrated, then the one on he left, then one of the two behind him. Pavel blocked their clumsy attacks with no effort at all, dashing around like a virus program. One of the guards managed to block his disc, only to have his own detached and used to slash him across the midsection.

The commander took a moment to revel in the sight of the spilling code. It felt so invigorating, to exercise the power over the life and death of these programs, to be in control, especially after this humiliating experience at Able's garage. No, his garage now. He would make these traitors pay, all of them-

Too late did he notice that one of the guards had escaped and was now making his way toward Tesler's chambers. The doors slid open just as Pavel bared his teeth and threw his disc toward the guard.

"What", the commander drawled, as if disappointed, "are you running away from me n-"

"Pavel!", he heard a sharp yell as his disc was met in mid-air by another one which sent it flying mere centimeters from his face and jamming into the wall behind him.

There was only one program whose voice he hated with such deep passion, even more so than all of the mechanics in that blasted garage combined. That dim-witted, naïve, meddling piece of ill-written code that he had to call co-worker. Pavel scoffed at her, his tiny eyes harboring enough hatred to probably rival Clu's loathing of Flynn.

"You're standing in my way, Paige. "

"And you are killing my underlings", her frown deepened and she straightened her pose, barring the entrance. "General Tesler has forbidden all intrusions and you are not an exception."

"I see you're every bit as imbecilic as your precious underlings were, down to the speech pattern. Nonetheless, I have urgent news for our leader that would perhaps make him reconsider that particular order", Pavel insisted, trying to shove Paige aside. "Now will you stop being so uncooperative or should I reenact our dance at the Coliseum?"

"Do not imagine that your new promotion entitles you to derez my subjects at will." The obnoxious female program was exhausting his patience. "I will not let you in before I receive a sufficient expl-"

"Enough, both of you!" The deep raspy voice of General Tesler startled the two commanders and they jumped away from each other as he approached. "Paige, as I have told you many times, a few derezzed guards are not such an issue. And you", he pointed toward Pavel, "what news is so urgent that you had to exterminate a squad just to deliver it to me?"

"The Renegade, sir", Pavel began, shooting Paige with a dirty look, "he has gained the support of those troublesome mechanics! I had to withdraw my forces and inform you of this rebellion as quickly as I could!"

"So you just curled your tail between your legs and ran?" Tesler bared his teeth, looming like a predator over the hunched commander. "I gave you three recognizers for that mission, each of them carrying a squadron of guards, and you flee before a dozen of civilians who can barely wield their discs? I would turn you into a pile of voxels right now if I didn't have more important matters to deal with. Do you have the slightest notion of how you ruined our reputation among the citizens?"

"Sir, the Renegade was there, he could have rallied them-"

"Silence!" Tesler was evidently in no mood for receiving bad news. "And what of that abomination that ravaged half of the city? Did the Renegade blow it up?"

"It would seem so, sir." Pavel replied uncertainly. "There were some personnel at the crash site that were not under my command. Should I see to it?"

The general's hand shot forward and grabbed Pavel by the collar, lifting him into the air.

"No, I've had enough of your failures for this cycle. Go back to your assigned district. I'm leaving the investigation to Paige. Go and have someone clean this mess", Tesler pointed at the piled voxels littering the floor.

"With all due respect, sir, Clu is arriving in person. Should I not arrange his reception, at least?"

"No!" Tesler's booming voice made the hunched-back program recoil. "Go clean up that malware nest you are in charge of. I will greet Clu myself."

Paige smirked at Pavel as he nodded curtly and exited the room, drooping his shoulders.

"Have a nice time in Purgos", her sneer caught him at the door, earning a growl from his throat, "and say hi to Gorn from me, will you?"

Let her mock all she wanted, Pavel thought. She would still regret it in the end.

* * *

Paige was pacing nervously around her room. Uncertainty filled her mind as she thought about her imminent task. What those mechanics had done was an open revolt. That made them criminals and enemies of the state. Yet the few times she went to the garage, what she saw were generally decent, normal programs not unlike herself when she worked at the medical center.

And then there was Beck, who couldn't just be described with the word "decent". From the moment he had repaired that runaway train they were stranded on, she had started to feel a strange kinship with him. Now that she thought about it, even when they first met after the Renegade appeared, she had been unconsciously drawn to the mechanic. Even though they scarcely knew each other, it was obvious that Beck possessed something which distinguished him from the other programs. Perhaps it was the playful optimism that lit up his features when they talked, or his willingness to step forward and solve problems, sometimes risking his life, or something else – she could not determine, but whatever it was, it had made Paige take off the mask she had been wearing since the loss of her friends. She had only grown to like him more after their two dates, had enjoyed their conversations and if not for Pavel's intervention, she would have pursued a serious relationship with Beck. With him, she was free to be herself – not Paige the hardened battle commander, but Paige the girl, who could have fun, dream and maybe – just maybe – even love.

Paige shook her head. That affair had been highly unprofessional of her. As pleasant as the memories of Beck were, now was not the time for reminiscing. The last few cycles had been rather eventful, and not in the good sense. First she'd had a false memory of treason implanted through her eye. Then Pavel had almost derezzed her in the Games, from which the Renegade had saved her in a vain attempt to recruit her for his ruinous cause. Then the white-clothed menace had shown his true colors as a terrorist, going on a killing spree throughout Argon. After that, there was that giant yellow ship which crashed, of all places, right next to the garage where the mechanics had taken the Renegade's side. They should have derezzed him on the spot. Instead, Pavel had reported that they had firmly stood in his defense. Something was terribly wrong about this whole situation and Paige felt she was going to have a hard time discovering what exactly it was.

Apparently, brute force had not solved the problem, so perhaps a more subtle approach would be successful. If the mechanics had repelled Pavel's forces, perhaps they would be more inclined to help if they were asked to. After all, she had worked with Hopper and Bartik before, although they were not the best assistants one could find. Paige took her light cycle baton and exited the room.

Some milicycles later, she was racing through the streets of Argon, wondering if she was on her way to making a big mistake. Hopefully, the mechanics could be reasoned with. The alternative would almost certainly lead to casualties, which, as a medic, Paige loathed. In her memory, she cycled the names of those she knew personally. Hopper and Bartik were obvious, but she'd better talk to someone from the actual staff. That Zed, who once made a cannon which blew up in his hands, was a complete glitch and wouldn't yield much valuable information. His companion, Mara, on the other hand, would be quite useful in this investigation, provided she could be persuaded to cooperate. However, Paige knew that the blue-haired girl was quite supportive of the Renegade, at least prior to Able's death. And if she refused, talking to Beck was still an option, though Paige would prefer to avoid him for the time being.

As she approached the garage, she noticed that repairs had already started. There was much to repair indeed – the ship had torn right through the building, likely smashing most vehicles inside to bits. At least Paige hoped that it was only walls and vehicles. Beside the garage, orange fences encircled the remains of the ship which were also being repaired – not by the garage employees, she noticed. Black guards stood every two meters in front of the fence, strangely not interacting with the mechanics who just did their work as if it was a normal cycle on the Grid.

"Soldier", Paige said as she derezzed her light cycle and approached the fence's entrance. "Damage report. And what is this ship?"

"Confidential information, ma'am", one of the guards answered as he blocked her way with a staff. "You are not authorized."

Paige was beginning to understand how Pavel felt earlier in Tesler's quarters.

"Who is your superior?", she asked, irritated. "Tell him to report to General Tesler at once."

"Captain Cutler only answers before Clu", the guard countered. "You are advised to leave the crash site now, ma'am."

"Don't "ma'am" me", Paige grumbled as she turned on her heel and hurried toward the garage.

So, this ship was indeed sent by Clu himself. That wasn't good news, especially with the orange armada that now loomed in the sky. Paige thought that maybe the citizens had felt so scared way back when Tesler's carrier and recognizers first appeared above the city. Now her general's fleet looked like a bunch of gridbugs before Clu's. And this captain Cutler had just come here without announcement. This reminded Paige of Dyson's not overly pleasant visit. If Clu learned – and seeing as Cutler's ship had crashed in direct proximity to the garage, it was safe to assume he knew already – of the rebellion, Tesler and his followers would be subjected to far more unpleasant things than Dyson's sardonic quips.

Cutler… The name sounded vaguely familiar. Paige searched her memory banks. She only found one match – the program who had fought in the games together with Beck. Back then, on the arena, they had formed a team against the Occupation. Against Clu. Cutler had been an adept fighter in the games, even more so than Beck. She had even heard of him spreading that blasphemy about Tron being alive. So how was he a captain under Clu now? Had he been his agent all this time? Had he been repurposed? Either way, that meant trouble.

"Can I help you?"

Paige turned, only to see the girl she knew as Mara staring at her. Not particularly welcoming.

"You're Mara, right?"

"Yeah, I am. As you can see, the garage is undergoing repairs, so we're closed for now."

"First of all, I am sorry for your leader's death. But I'm not here as a client", Paige stated, "and I have a few questions for you. "

"And what answers can I deliver that commander Paige would find satisfying?" The sharpness in the program's voice was something unexpected. Nor was it something she could tolerate.

"Commander Paige would be glad if you explained to her in full detail how and why you joined the Renegade's side."

Mara made a step forward, raising her head proudly.

"I owe you no explanation, and neither does any program here. We do not work for the Occupation. In case you didn't notice, you are not welcome at this facility."

What Paige did notice was that several mechanics, including Zed, had encircled them, ready to draw their discs. She had to tread lightly. An exasperated sigh left her mouth.

"You will accomplish nothing with that foolish rebellion. In case you didn't notice", the sight of Mara's discomfort made Paige smile on the inside, "Clu has arrived in person. If you continue this disobedience, the consequences may be dire. I, however, have come here to solve the problem peacefully and for this I will require your cooperation."

"Was that a threat?" Zed asked pointedly. "Because if it was, it sounded as if you said "please don't rebel or Clu will take my head", or something like that. How do I put it…? Ineffectual? I'm tempted to say you are a joke."

There was nothing the commander wanted more right now than to draw her disc and show him who was being ineffectual and a joke, but she reminded herself what her task was. No casualties, she told herself. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"Call it a warning. I don't want anyone to get hurt, but if you persist, my superiors may order severe punishments for all of you. So be content that it's me you are dealing with and just do what I say, will you? Prepare your discs for scanning."

"You want our discs?" Mara detached her disc and activated it. Zed and the others followed suit. Paige was beginning to regret not taking escort on that mission. She drew her weapon, clenched her teeth and prepared to strike.

"That's enough!", a familiar voice behind her scolded. "Put down your discs, I'll handle this."

Paige turned around, only to see Beck's frowning face. So much for avoiding him, she thought. The words stuck in her throat and her mind froze. What was she supposed to say to him? Whatever she thought of she dismissed only a moment later as she just kept staring at him. All her sternness and fierceness had left her and suddenly Paige felt weak and vulnerable.

"Commander", his tone was infuriatingly formal, as if they had never met, let alone dated, "may I have a word with you in private?"

Really now, was he giving her the cold shoulder? Yes, she had been blunt about them breaking up, but that was no reason for him to pout like he was written yesterday. Her insecurity and confusion quickly gave way to irritation. Paige frowned and shot him with an annoyed look.

"Y-yes. Lead the way." She could hear herself stutter.

"So I'm 'commander' to you now?" she asked a couple of nanocycles later, when they were alone in what used to be Able's office. "Because we're no longer seeing each other? How very mature of you, Beck."

"Well, I'm not the one being immature", he answered calmly. "You didn't come to see me, did you? You are here on Tesler's behalf, so it makes sense that I'm addressing you as a military official. You were the one who turned it personal. Besides, you said to me that I was causing you to lose focus. So please focus now and tell me what you want to know."

Paige bit her lip. Beck had been so visibly hurt when their last met that she had barely resisted the urge to take back her words and return to him. Even now, though he wasn't showing it, he was still upset.

"Beck, I am sorry, I really am", she began, "I shouldn't have said what I said, I was too harsh. You deserve better than that. But that advice you gave me about the fresh perspective almost got me derezzed. Please, you have to understand."

Hesitation replaced Beck's stern expression. He placed his hand on hers, which was resting on the table.

"I believe you, Paige", he said reassuringly. "I want us to be together and I know you feel the same way, but right now both of us are going through a lot. And we have serious matters to discuss. I don't mean to be rude, but let's get to it."

Paige sucked in a breath.

"Right. This revolt. I wish to know everything about it. Why did you support the Renegade?"

"Because he fights for our freedom."

"How can you be so gullible? All of you? Beck, this terrorist went on a rampage throughout the city. He killed your boss, and you still defend him?"

"We thought so at first, yeah", Beck countered. "But it's not something he'd do."

"Not something he'd do?" Paige was so overwhelmed with rage that she could barely talk. "What, are you best friends with the Renegade now? How do you presume to have the slightest idea of what he does or doesn't do on a regular basis?"

"What I know", the mechanic's tone started to become more adamant, "is that he saved my friends. From you and Tesler, no less. And more than once."

Paige let out a sigh and out a hand on Beck's chest.

"You know", she said. "One time I was stuck with the Renegade on a sinking island. I had to work with him in order to survive. And it almost appeared that he really intended to aid me. But then he betrayed me."

Beck's eyed suddenly widened in shock.

"How so?"

"I fell off a cliff and instead of helping me climb up, he jumped into his lifeboat and disappeared. After I had healed his wound! General Tesler was coming to rescue me and as soon as he saw him, the Renegade just left me to die and fled. You see, he betrayed me."

Beck caught her hand and forced it away.

"Paige, you're not talking sense."

"No matter how heroic he comes off, it's only as long as it suits him!" Paige continued, not paying attention. "That's why he saved your friends too. To gain support! He did that again when he 'saved' me from the games. Don't you understand?"

"It was him that saved you?" The mechanic's face now expressed genuine surprise. "And you're still against him?"

"It was all an act, Beck" She hadn't believed Pavel's lies for a second, but it wasn't impossible that the Renegade worked with him. "He was the one who framed me as a traitor."

"Paige, that's impossible", Beck grabbed by the shoulders and shook her. "The Renegade is not the maniac you are making him out to be! Do you remember when Hopper and my friends were about to be executed? He saved them while you watched from a balcony and Pavel fired missiles. Do not tell me tales about how he's an evil blasphemer and the Occupation is a noble army of salv-"

Paige abruptly pulled herself out of his grip, outraged. She was done convincing Beck. If he would not listen to reason, she would have to do this the old-fashioned way – by pulling a rank.

"He is a dangerous criminal, regardless of what heroic halo you grace him with. You are to surrender him to me as soon as possible. This is a military order. Disobedience makes you and all others who work here accomplices of the Renegade and enemies of the state."

Beck's eyes narrowed. That was a shock. It hurt Paige to see him angry at her. The girl in her was convinced that she deserved it. Her commander persona, on the contrary, felt aggravated by this obstructive behavior.

"I see you're persistent as always", the mechanic replied, icily, "but then so am I. Yet, seeing as you are threatening my friends and co-workers, I have to comply. As of now, we will no longer aid the Renegade. However, I make no promise of collaboration with you or other representatives of the Occupation."

Well, she decided. A small victory, but a victory still. She always preferred diplomacy over violence.

"Now", Beck's voice was cold like the Outlands, "if that's all, commander…"

This formality again. Paige didn't even know what she felt – indignation, aggravation, pain or disappointment. Either way, she barely found the words to express it.

"I thought at least you could understand that I'm doing this to protect you, Beck", she said bitterly and turned to leave. "You call us Occupation, but we only seek to establish order, not oppress and derez programs without a reason. And if none of you can accept that, I'm done here."

"Then tell me one thing, Paige."

She whirled around to face him. The anger on his face was now mixed with sorrow.

"What happened to Keller?"

Paige could not deny it. After Beck had saved her and Keller from the train, the scientist had been brought before Tesler's throne in hopes of being accepted into the ranks of the Occupation again. That had been the commander's promise and she had sincerely believed her master would spare Keller. She had left the pair alone, but the awful scream and the sound of voxels clanking on the floor had been clearly audible from outside the throne room. Between that and the fact that the researcher had never been heard from again, it was clear – Keller had been mercilessly derezzed.

Feeling the tears stinging her eyes, Paige exited the room, leaving Beck with no other answer than her silence.


	3. Collapse

Beck stared at the door of Able's office. His mind was a mess. There was too much with which he had to deal now. Able's loss, the Uprising, Clu's arrival, and now Paige. He didn't know how he had managed to hold together when she visited. So she did feel that way about him too. It wasn't just a game she was playing for amusement. That was some relief, but her stubbornness about serving Tesler wasn't. If only he could make her see that she was on the wrong side. She was a good program. Then why was it so hard to understand that Tesler was a cruel, ruthless dictator? It wasn't like he ever made any effort to hide it.

"Hey Beck", Zed's voice pulled him out of his thoughts and back into reality. "Man, what did that girl do to you? You've been sitting here for so long we thought you're cubes!"

"Or what did you do to her", Mara asked as the two entered the room. "Not that I like her very much, but she came here all high and mighty and then you showed up, brought her here and she left in tears. What was that all about?"

"Yeah", Zed leered and elbowed his friend. "Did you guys..."

Both Beck and Mara shot him with angry looks.

"Not a good time for jokes, Zed", Beck chided.

"Beck", the blue-haired girl started with a serious tone, "it seems you still haven't told us everything. Are you associating with Paige?"

"Seriously", Zed piped, "is she your girlfriend? I had just started to trust the Renegade, you know."

"No, Zed, she is not my girlfriend", Beck snapped, annoyed, "though she is..."

"She is what?"

"She's a nice program. Different from Tesler or Pavel."

"Well, yeah", his friend cocked an eyebrow. "She's female."

Mara, who had said nothing while listening to the juvenile quarrel her friends were having, suddenly shoved Zed aside.

"Beck", she said sternly, frowning, "I supported you during your hardest times as the Renegade. I didn't stand against Pavel and his goons to see you betray the Uprising for a pretty girl!"

Never before had Beck felt so insulted. Mara, his friend who had always believed in the Revolution, now accused him of treachery. He furrowed his brows and caught her by the shoulders, looking her in the eyes.

"Mara, I started the Uprising. Don't think I would ever give that up."

"You know we want to believe you, Beck, but we can't help but doubt when you just have a chat with a high-ranking enemy soldier."

"I know. But I had to avert the conflict that was sure to follow", he explained and let Mara go. "She may have been alone, but I can assure you she can put up quite the fight."

"Whoa, Beck", Zed interrupted again, "you only talk good stuff about that girl. Really, are you dating her?"

Beck sighed. This was going to be hard.

"Okay, yeah, I used to. But she broke up with me. And before you two ask, I dated her as Beck the civilian. She doesn't know I'm the Renegade."

"I really don't know what you like about this dominatrix", Mara objected, "but oh well, to each his own. It's just her 'work, slaves, give me your discs, slaves' that bugs me whenever she comes here."

"She did go out of her way to help me save the programs on a runaway train", Beck pointed out. "And she actually wanted to warn you when she arrived here. She could have brought ten recognizers worth of guards."

"Are you defending her n-"

"No", he frowned and assumed his rebel leader posture. "but she was right. Clu's in town, and with that things might get ugly if we are not careful. If they visit us again, you are to display no affiliation with me or Tron. This has to be handled under the radar."

"And when are we to crawl from 'under the radar', Beck?", Zed's patience was wearing thin.

"Until I assume it's safe. I won't risk anyone getting hurt."

"What will you have us do, then?", Mara asked. "Just don't tell me to go to the software mall with Paige."

"You two are the leaders of the garage now", Beck said and placed his hands on Zed and Mara's shoulders. "As far as customers are concerned, we're closed. You are to neither oppose nor cooperate with the Occupation. I'll infiltrate Tesler's ship and see what's going on, then I'll pick you up at the end of the cycle and we'll go to Tron's stronghold to discuss what to do."

Mara eyed him with concern.

"Be careful, Beck. It'll be harder than it used to be when there were only Tesler's minions."

"Good luck, buddy", Zed clapped him on the shoulder before the pair walked toward the door, "we'll keep it safe and sound here."

Beck watched them as they waved goodbye and exited. Yes, he would definitely need that luck.

* * *

The door to the throne room swung open and an entire battalion of guards marched through, then lined up in two opposing rows from the gate to the throne on which Tesler sat. More of them proceeded to arrive, filling the hall. Paige looked about nervously, asking herself if she should prepare for a fight. Clu was known for his penchant for pomposity, but still bringing his honour guard could as well mean a purge. Paige tried to brush the thought away, but to no avail.

The entrance glowed bright yellow and Clu entered, followed by Dyson. Tesler almost jumped from his seat to greet them, but Clu waved him to stand still. The Administrator of the Grid walked proudly, with his black mask covering his features, authority written in every gesture. And Paige felt that he was not overly pleased.

"All hail Clu!", the guards boomed as one and slammed their staves on the floor, creating an inscription on the floor that read the leader's name.

"My liege!", the general almost cried out, basking in his lord's presence. Dyson's eyes narrowed in disgust.

Clu walked to the center of the hall and stood on top of the "C" of his name written on the floor. Paige tensed. This was her idol, the pinnacle of perfection, the all-knowing one. And yet something about him felt wrong, illogical. She and Pavel exchanged concerned looks as Clu beckoned to Tesler to come to him with her and Pavel.

"There's a terrorist loose in Argon", the general said, almost in a whisper, kneeling, "a renegade. And I bear the plan."

"Don't beat yourself up, Tesler", the admin's voice sounded soothingly, almost brotherly. "You've given your best, I know it."

The older program looked up, his features lit up by a glimmer of hope.

"What I asked of you is no less than perfection", Clu continued, not paying attention. Paige winced at the last word. The state of Argon was anything but perfect. Fear crept in her mind. This could very well be her last cycle. She watched as Clu produced two tiny balls from his robe and held them in his hand. They were black, with one band through the middle that glowed with the colour of his circuitry. The leader inhaled, then resumed his speech:

"Аnd that's no easy thing to achieve, my friend. Behold", he announced, as if he was starting a lecture, "the sphere."

The spheres flew out of his hand and hovered at the height of his face, moving as if orbiting one another.

"Its curvature", he narrated, while Tesler and the rest looked in wonder, "its shape. So endlessly..."

"... Perfect." The word escaped Paige's lips without warning. Chills went down her spine a moment later, when she realized what she had done. Interrupting Clu meant death, and she was about to learn this firsthand.

"Yes", said the great leader instead, looking at her with a smile of approval instead. "Good. It is perfect."

She listened, unable to believe her luck, as he carried on with his filibuster:

"But was it always this way? Did it emerge perfect? Or was its perfection seized violently from the torrents of disorder?..."

With a snap of his fingers, the spheres fell.

"... From chaos?"

They exploded in a rain of yellow voxels as Tesler watched with terrified clarity.

"Pick those up, will you?", Clu asked him in the nicest way possible, in a voice dangerously calm.

The mighty general looked like a deranged, cracked program as he hurriedly started to collect the scraps from the floor.

"So I ask you", the admin continued, his gaze hovering over Paige and Pavel before returning to Tesler, "how do you take something clearly broken and make it perfect?"

The medic's eyes opened wide at the sound of a disc being activated.

"By changing the hands of leadership?", she heard Dyson's purr, nanocycles before Tesler let out a cry of pain, his severed gauntlets tumbling on the ground.

"Dyson", Clu's voice sounded as if he were chiding an alpha-stage program, "why so uncivilized, man?"

He picked up the right gauntlet and reattached it back to the screaming general's stump.

"Stand up, Tesler. You see,", he spoke, almost lovingly, "even if you've got the greatest weapons, they won't help you if you are a blundering fool."

He repaired the general's other hand, then took his disc, turned his back to Tesler and his minions and started to scroll the memories, nodding or shaking his head at times. After about a milicycle, he faced them again.

"Yeah", he said, still calmly, but not as warmly as before, "like I said, Tesler, you're an old fool."

Before anyone could reach, he impaled the general in the stomach with his own disc. Voxels flew through the hole, hitting as far as the throne's backseat. Paige was horrified at the sight of her respected commander as he fell. Pavel was also shocked, although she knew it was for an entirely different reason.

"Alright everyone", Clu announced, as though nothing has happened, and threw the disc away. "We're done here, let's leave, we have a tight schedule. You two, Paige and Pavel, come with us."

Pavel readily stepped forward, a mixture of glee and fear on his face, but Paige just stood there, hesitating. He could not abandon general Tesler like that. He had not abandoned her when she was about to die. She owed it to him.

Dyson, that slimy wretch, approached her and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Commander, hurry, our liege won't ask a second time."

A cruel smile formed on Clu's lips as he was about to walk out.

"On second thought, Dyson, leave her. Paige, dear, perhaps you'd want to take a look at your boss's disc, hmm?", he asked and winked playfully. Then he exited, followed by the remaining soldiers, Dyson, and Pavel, who shot her with a dirty look. Not that he could look at her in another manner. Paige slowly walked to where Tesler's disc was left, the click of her heels echoing against the wall. What could be so important that Clu himself recommended her to see it?

Then she started to remember. All of Tesler's speeches about justice, perfection, freedom and benevolence. Then the gladiator games, the murders of innocent guards, his nonchalance, all the cover-ups... A dreadful suspicion started to scratch inside her head like viral code. Had he been deceiving her the whole time? What had he kept from her? She had to see from the beginning.

"Paige." Her leader could barely manage a whisper. The gash across his midsection was bleeding red voxels which were spilling onto the floor. "My disc. Give it to me."

The commander picked up the disc, but instead of obeying, she held it with both hands and activated the memory bank. The girl could barely control her fingers enough to scroll past the recent files and finally reached the date of her own recruitment for the army. She tapped a holographic button and played the only video from that cycle.

The video was from Tesler's perspective, at first showing data rain descending upon Gallium when he and his troops landed at the medical center. The general walked slowly along the landing strip until two programs in medical outfits came to him. Paige gasped. Her friends. So they weren't murdered by Quorra and Ada. It was all a lie.

"Sir, we were the ones who called you about the fugitive ISO", the male program spoke. Linux, as Paige remembered.

"And you said her name was Quorra?" Tesler from the video asked in a brusque military manner, walking past them toward the building.

"She and her friend were treated right here", Rox confirmed.

"They just left a few micros ago", Linux added.

"You've done the right thing", Tesler's voice sounded almost as if he was about to give them medals, but then he casually waved his hand in their direction. "Tear this place apart and erase any trace of their presence. Round up every program that has been exposed to the ISOs and have them derezzed immediately", he ordered in a cold tone.

Paige's eyes widened in shock. She was no less stunned than the programs in the memory video she was playing.

"What?" The commander wanted to ask the same thing as Rox, but only her lips moved and the sole sound was Tesler's nonchalant voice from the recording:

"Collaboration with traitors must be punished as an example for anyone who might consider helping them." He was speaking almost friendly now, as if lecturing a stray program. "I'm afraid that includes you."

Paige's hands were shaking and she almost dropped the disc as she heard the cold declaration, followed by the protests of her friends which turned into screams and the sounds of broken code. She gazed at the hologram, as if hypnotized, unable to avert her eyes from the sight of Tesler and his guardsmen walking through the corridors of the hospital and derezzing everyone in their way. Horrified, the commander held her breath as she watched the discs cutting and rending and voxels flying in all directions, even onto Tesler's visor which, on the inside, reflected his cruel smirk. Finally, they reached the end of an empty corridor, where a young girl lay, an all-too-familiar monome player and a solid holographic photo on the floor beside her. Paige gasped again. She was about to witness the moment when this monster who killed her friends had deceived her and made her a slave.

"So this is the one that helped the ISOs", Tesler's voice was calm as always. Suddenly, a line of text manifested below the hologram's rim: "I'll interrogate her first before derezzing her. She might yield some valuable information."

"Wake her up."

Paige watched as her younger self dispatched the two guards, utilizing the lessons Quorra had taught her – the ISO who she had hated for so long. Now she knew that hatred was undeserved. It felt as if her whole world was falling apart, as if she had been living in a Grid which was upside-down. She noticed that another message flickered over the recording: "Knocking out two of my guards right after waking up from a coma. She seems to be a capable warrior. Perhaps I should consider recruitment." So this was the only reason she was left alive. Because she had enough combat skills to effortlessly derez innocent programs in his name.

Quicker than she could blink, the light glove belonging to Tesler from the present shot toward her, grabbed the disc and yanked it from her grip, stopping the video abruptly. The girl turned in his direction, only to see that he had attached the disc in place and the voxels that had fallen from his wound were flying quickly back to their usual positions, healing his injuries in the matter of nanocycles.

"I believe you can recall the following events quite well by yourself", the general remarked casually as he helped himself up and started to walk slowly and menacingly toward his second-in-command. For a moment Paige was petrified. Then wrath overcame her, pushing away the fear and confusion. She growled and drew her disc, poised to strike. Her eyes narrowed at the program who had robbed her of her friends and her happiness. Of everything.

"You", she only managed to hiss, but in that one word there was anger, pain and hatred that could not be expressed in terabytes of code.

"Oh yes", Tesler snarled, "I had your friends killed. They were so very pathetic, both of them. You should know that I thoroughly enjoyed every single deresolution I witnessed in that hospital."

"I'm sure that the satisfaction of all of them combined will not be greater than mine when I derez you, Tesler", Paige growled back and hurled her disc with a savage cry.

The general casually swatted away the flying weapon and it bounced off the walls before returning to Paige.

"You are a formidable warrior, Paige", he said with his usual fatherly tone, "but so hopelessly naïve. Sometimes I wonder how the Renegade has trouble winning you over."

"Don't worry", Paige retorted. "You'll have plenty of time to ask him when I've turned you both to cubes". And with a vicious swing she threw the disc again.

"You're becoming distracted", Tesler chuckled. "It's affecting your accura-"

Just as he was about to finish, a large chunk of a column crashed down on him.

"A simple trick I learned from one of the Renegade's accomplices", Paige quipped.

Just a moment after that she barely had the time to duck as the chunk whistled past her ear with a terrible force and landed in the other end of the throne room, breaking into voxels. General Tesler loomed once again, a glowing red wound gaping on his forehead. All amusement was gone from his features, giving way to fury that was on par with her own. He clenched his fists and reactivated his light gloves.

"Paige", his voice was now a low growl, like a spinning disc, "now you signed your death sentence."

Both his hands shot forward. Paige managed to evade one punch, but the other hit her right in the stomach, sending her across the room. Pain throbbed through her body as she got up, and she ran toward her opponent, jumping in the last second and preparing to land a blow that would slice him from shoulder to waist. But Tesler was faster. He retracted his right arm, grabbing her leg on the way and hurling her in the general direction of his throne. Her body twisted in mid-air as she desperately tried to avoid crashing head-first into the chair's arm rest. It hit her in the shoulder instead, sending another impulse of pain into her right arm and causing her to drop her disc. Tiny voxels started to pour down from the wound. Paige stretched her right leg and managed to hook the still rolling disc on it. Then she kicked into the air, sending the weapon right into her hand.

"Admirable skills in acrobatics", Tesler remarked, "but they will not save you."

Paige threw the disc while still getting up, then ran towards him and leaped high in the air. Too busy deflecting the weapon, the general could do nothing but make an ill attempt to dodge her kick. A moment later her heel smashed his nose. Tesler stumbled back, but managed to keep his balance. Meanwhile, Paige caught her disc and threw it at his left leg. Thin red lines burst from the wound and started spreading on Tesler's suit. The general roared in pain and dropped on one knee as most if his left leg disintegrated. He started to wave his fists around, thrashing violently at the floor, consumed by blind rage. He looked downright pathetic now, like a helpless adware animal. Paige took took a nanocycle to savor the moment, almost reveling in her opponent's desperation. She had him at his mercy now, so at least she could try to find some answers.

"Just answer me one question", she asked, throwing his disc at him again and severing his right glove. "Why?"

Tesler managed to get a hold of himself and stared at her, mockery still glinting in his eyes.

"Why what, dear Paige?", he half-chuckled-half-panted. "Why did I derez your friends? Because it was amu-"

The commander silenced him with a vicious kick that caught him square in the jaw."Why did you let me view the memory file? You could have taken your disc immediately and I would never have known."

He frowned. "You've been failing to contend with the Renegade lately. And you've become mellow. Unworthy of Clu's favor and mine. I was going to have you derezzed anyway, so I decided I might as well have some fun by showing you how pitiful and naive you've been. I want you to perish with the clear understanding of how you've been my pawn all along."

Paige ground her teeth. So that glitch even had the insolence to gloat.

"I do have that understanding now", she snarled as she raised her disc again to strike the final blow, "but I'm not the one among us who's about to per-"

Too late did she realize that Tesler had only meant to distract her. His hand lunged toward the weapon and wrested it from her grasp. She watched in horror as a crooked red line of code shot from his wound through his body to his disc. From there erupted another that sunk into hers. The general's leg started to rebuild itself with staggering speed and he jumped up and hurled the corrupted disc behind Paige. Her eyes opened wide and flickered when the disc attached itself onto her back and started updating her vitals. She felt the data flow surging like a lightning bolt through her body, her leg under the thigh crumbling into voxels. It happened so quickly that she didn't even register the pain before falling to the ground. Tesler was now towering above her, baring his teeth.

"You deserve to go out in a spectacular manner, Paige", he returned to his amiable tone, "as a reward for your long and faithful service. You have been a truly devoted warrior."

He stretched out his right hand and transformed it into the light cannon he once used to fight the Renegade. The weapon was really terrifying. Like a monstrous red eye, the barrel glared at Paige. Pavel had indeed put a considerable amount of engineering skill into designing it. She had seen it blow a man-sized hole in a solid wall, the white-clad vigilante almost falling prey to it.

"I wasn't able to properly test my upgrade on the Renegade when he showed up for a beating", the general said nonchalantly, "and since I don't see him here, you can serve as target practice. Also, as I said, it'll be quite the spectacle."

For the first time in many cycles, Paige truly knew fear. Through the waves of pain pulsing through her body, she could hear the sound of the weapon powering up. The light lines on it glowed with an angry red light that paralysed her from head to toe. She detached her disc and lashed out at the barrel, trying to slice it in half, but her grip had grown so weak that she dropped it. Her systems were failing to deal with the injuries and her code began to destabilize. Error messages started to flash before her eyes. Bug you, Pavel, she thought as she felt the voxels bleed out of her wounds, may that same weapon kill you too.

"Don't twitch, ex-commander", Tesler's taunting voice sounded, as if coming from far away, "I do wish to erase all your voxels in just one blast."

Time seemed to slow as the hideous weapon finally charged. Paige watched the energy flowing through it, that was about to shatter her into raw data. Refusing to close her eyes, she gnashed her teeth and glared at her tormentor, determined to die unbroken, with only hatred and anger and spite in her gaze but no defeat.

Still, the moment never came. In a sudden white blur, as though in slow motion, she saw a disc clash with the barrel, knocking it aside. The cannon fired a nanocycle later, blasting a hole into the floor next to her. Both Paige and Tesler looked, startled, in the direction from where the disc came and she asked herself whether what she saw was real or just a hallucination of her tortured mind.

On the entrance to the throne room, almost glowing in his white suit, the red and orange lights of the hall casting an eerie hue over his white and blue circuits, stood the Renegade.

* * *

Beck devoured the sight before him, unable to process everything at once. Paige, always so fervently loyal to Tesler, was now fighting him with all her ferocity. Well, she had been until moments ago. Now she was lying on the floor, half-derezzed, with one leg brutally cut off and voxels spilling out. It pained him to no end to see her so helpless and suffering. He couldn't allow the cruel tyrant to take her from him as he had Bodhi. He had to do something, and fast.

"Tesler!"

"Well", the general laughed, "if it isn't the dashing hero himself. Come to punish me for my crimes, have you? As you can see, I am preoccupied and cannot receive you at the moment."

"I'm afraid you'll have to interrupt your current activity", Beck replied coldly, "otherwise you will force my hand."

"Oh, rest assured, Renegade", Tesler chuckled, "I'll give you a better reason to be afraid. Now, if you will excuse me..."

He aimed the cannon at Paige again. There had to be some way to distract him. With the corner of his eye Beck caught a glimpse of her, almost disintegrated, stretching her hand, trying in vain to get to her disc. Then it hit him. That had worked before, it had to do the job now. He started walking along the wall, calculating angles.

"I'm no renegade", he said, trying to hide the fear of Paige getting derezzed under false bravado, "I'm Tron!"

The general snarled in aggravation at this blasphemy. His weapon now pointed at Beck.

"YOU! ARE! NO! TRON!", Tesler bellowed, punctuating each word with a blast. "You're an impostor! A crook! But after I'm done with you, you won't even be a pile of bits!"

Beck jumped around the room, barely avoiding one shot after the next. Finally, he was positioned on a line with Paige and her disc. He detached his disc, brought it close to the floor, and threw it.

"Such poor aim", Tesler sneered, clueless of his opponent's intention. "Is that really the best you can do, Renegade?"

The disc glided over the floor and knocked the one that belonged to Paige right into her waiting hand. She wasted no time and attached it to her back. Behind the mask, Beck sighed in relief. At least her code was stable now, so she wouldn't derez if she didn't take more hits.

"One of my best accomplishments", he retorted. "Are you done breaking walls now?"

"This weapon was made with the sole purpose of destroying you", the general remarked, "You should consider it an honour, if you had any concept thereof."

Beck made a mocking bow. Anything to distract Tesler from Paige right now. He noticed that she was tending to her wounds already. Smart girl.

"I'm flattered", he said to the older program, "but I'd rather pass up the opportunity."

He activated his disc's cutting edge and hurled it, accomplishing what Paige had failed to do. The weapon's barrel broke, one half dropping on the floor and shattering. The general roared in outrage, obviously losing control.

"I see you want to finish what we started on Argon Square", he growled, "Well then, so be it."

He transformed his hand back into a gauntlet and shot it forward. It very nearly missed Beck's disc which zoomed past it and knocked Tesler in the chest, causing him to lose balance. Beck was already in front of him, punching him in the face, then kicking him in the stomach, then tripping him and tumbling him down. For the first time since Bodhi's death, the mechanic was possessed by an unstoppable fury.

"You've got a lot to pay for", he said dryly and aimed at Tesler's remaining gauntlet.

Just as he was about to throw the weapon, something blindsided him. The floor rose to meet him and Beck bumped face first into his own reflection.

"Don't touch him", he heard Paige's voice, cold and filled with venom. He looked upward, only to see her standing between him and the general. Her leg was now half-restored, glowing a translucent red not unlike Rasket's hand when he was tortured by Pavel. It was good enough for her to walk, but Beck doubted she could use it for kicking right now.

"Grateful as always, aren't you. You didn't seem to mind my help a while ago."

"I never asked for your help", she stared daggers at him while he was getting up.

The two of them almost didn't notice the small object flying in their direction, the orange lights on it shutting down one by one while it ticked. The explosion threw Paige in the air, slamming her into Beck and sending them both flying. They crashed into one of the command screens and landed together in a heap. Beck felt the blush creeping on his face as her weight pressed him to the ground. He could swear to Flynn that in her expression he saw something else than irritation, some hint of attraction perhaps, though she'd never admit it.

"You seem to have an obsession with rescuing me and playing the hero", Paige's tone was not nearly as warm as Beck would like. "What, are you my self-proclaimed boyfriend I don't know about?"

"I actually wouldn't mind that", Beck teased. "If you quit punching me in the face."

"I'm not sure you even have a face. Now get out of my way."

The girl pushed herself off him and tried to stand up, but her wounded leg flickered dangerously and she dropped on one knee. Beck rose, then helped her up. She knocked his hand aside, annoyed.

"Leave now, before I've changed my mind about letting you live", she hissed and turned to Tesler, who was laying motionless, knocked unconscious by his own grenade.

Beck grabbed by the wrist and spun her around.

"I'm not leaving you here to get derezzed", he protested. "And why are you fighting Tesler? You're always so loyal to him."

The concern in his tone was obvious now. It stirred something in Paige's eyes and made her expression soften and she looked intensely at his mask, as if trying to see a familiar face under it. Had she recognized him? Beck sucked in a breath, unsure what to do. He wanted to reveal himself to her then and there, to tell her that he was not her enemy and help her break free from Tesler's clutches. Tentatively, he made a step toward the girl, reaching for her other hand. Then, all of a sudden, Paige's hesitation was gone and her face contorted again into a deep scowl. She grabbed him by the collar and pulled him closer, trying to drill holes into his visor with her icy glare. The spark he had noticed in her eyes faded away, replaced by cold fury.

"Tesler murdered my friends and blamed it on another to deceive me into serving him. I'm having my revenge and that's all you need to know. I have no time to deal with you, so for the last time, use the chance to get out of here and save your miserable life."

Her proximity was tantalizing, her obvious pain was making every bit of his code glitch, her rejection caused him to feel like he was being reformatted. It was just not fair. Why did she have to antagonize him so? He'd never done anything to her. Now she didn't even have the excuse of following the orders of her oh-so-benevolent leader any more, and still she resented being aided by the accursed Renegade. As much as Beck loved spending time with her, even in the midst of a battle, he couldn't help but get annoyed. Paige was being too headstrong for her own good.

"I told you, it's your life I'm trying to-"

"Enough, you two lovebirds", general Tesler's voice boomed all of a sudden, alerting them to their surroundings. "Both of you are quite entertaining to watch, but we have some unfinished business. Or should I say two unfinished executions?"

They jumped away from each other just in time to evade Tesler's disc, which would otherwise pixelate his face or hers. The general having regained his strength was not good news at all. He appeared to sense his end was near, and this only increased his frenzy. The gauntlet flew again and Beck barely dodged it this time.

He was one nanocycles away from throwing his disc, when the general flew in his direction, using his hand as a grappling hook. Paige tried to attack him, but he kicked her with all his strength in the head. The medic screamed in pain and collapsed on the floor as her voxels spilled again, this time from the mouth. She tried to rise, but Tesler kicked her again. More spat voxels. The girl sucked in a fitful breath and Beck saw the white-hot fury in her eyes melt into bitter despair as she looked at him. No, it could not be. He would not lose her.

"Paige!"

Beck's voice echoed in the hall as he raced toward the tyrant. In the blink of an eye, he was there, leaping to finally deal the final blow and finish his nemesis once and for all. And yet the general was quicker. He all but forgot about his subordinate. With stunning precision, the glove caught the still flying Renegade by the neck, then lunged forward and choke-slammed him into the wall. Beck reached for his disc, but it had fallen out of his hand and was hopelessly out of reach. Beside it, Paige was still curled up on the floor, breathing heavily.

"I've waited so long to savour this moment", Tesler rumbled as he strode toward his nemesis, shortening the distance. Energy pulsed along the glowing appendage, hitting Beck like a hammer. The sensation was familiar. He had first felt it on Argon Square.

"Only there is no masked sympathizer of yours to help you out this time, Renegade", the general snickered, saying Beck's own thoughts aloud. He had come all the way to the younger program now, with teeth bared in a vicious grin and the glare of a lunatic.

"I had planned to have you watch Paige's execution before you die", he chuckled, "but oh well, you can't have everything."

With a grunt, Beck tried to kick at him, to bash that disgusting face in with his fists, but Tesler was unwavering. Sharp pain burned him as he felt his body being torn to pieces. The familiar thin blue grid was spreading over his face and body. He saw his reflection in the visor, almost shredded to voxels, before the visor itself was covered by the creeping lines. The blue light engulfed Beck, clashing angrily with the fiery glow of Tesler's gauntlet.

"This is the end, Renegade", his adversary wheezed. "You are derezzed."

"For Linux!"

The shrill feminine voice snapped Beck out of the trance the pain had hurled him in. He blinked and moved his gaze to the left just in time to see Paige hack at the general's hand with her disc. She only managed to cut him slightly, but his grip on the Renegade's throat weakened. Beck used the opportunity and managed to get the monstrous gauntlet off himself.

"For Rox!", Paige screamed, swinging another, bright white disc at Tesler, slicing his arm at length just as he tried to launch it. "For every program you've derezzed!"

The girl's anger from before now paled in comparison to what was burning in her eyes now. The light lines on her suit pulsed with savage rage. Beck watched as she raised the two discs, hers and his, and brought them down in two swift arcs that joined at the baffled general's throat.

"For me!", Paige yelled, a thirst for vengeance in her voice the like of which Beck had never felt before.

Immediately, a thin grid not unlike the one covering Beck's features, rasterized Tesler's wrinkled face. His eyes bulged and his voice cracked when he tried to scream, turning into sound bits. The lines glowed an intense orange and a nanocycle later the severed head burst into scarlet cubes. The body followed a moment later.

The cracks lining Beck's visor subsided, but he could still see his face was fractured. His vision flickered, then went back to normal, while his sonic reception restarted. Paige was now standing before him, holding his disc in her hand.

"Tesler was mine to derez", she growled. "And you made a grave mistake by taking on him."

He just stood in front of her, life all but sucked out of him. He hardly even had the strength to keep himself from collapsing.

"I gave you a chance to escape but you squandered it", she continued, paying no attention to his injuries. "and I'm of another mind now. I will derez you for what you did to me."

Oh, Users. She was in the 'remember all grievances' mode now. Beck rolled his eyes under the mask, but said nothing. Paige was obviously glitching.

"You're just pathetic", the girl said with disgust and slammed the white disc into his palm. "But I'd hate to kill you if you don't put up a fight."

He caught the disc, but didn't move.

"Fight me!"

There had to be another way, Beck thought. She would understand. She would listen. Eventually.

"Paige", he barely mumbled, wobbling on his feet, "Listen to me. You've seen through Tesler's lies now. You must join the Rev-"

"Oh", she sneered, "you're the one to talk about lies. I may have been deceived by that wretch, but make no mistake – I'm not joining your delusional rebellion. You'll sow chaos on the Grid no longer."

A hard punch in the abdomen left him gasping for air. A kick to his head followed, then an uppercut and he couldn't even lift his hand to try and block the attacks. With a groan, the Renegade stumbled backwards, hitting the wall and crumbling into a heap on the floor. Seriously, that was what he received for saving her from certain deresolution? Come to think of it, she had always expressed her gratitude this way, by beating him up. Even though he was in love with her, his patience had run out. Beck ground his teeth, drew his disc and mustered every bit of strength left in his body. If she wanted her fight so much, he could not refuse her.

"You know", Paige taunted, "you actually gave Tesler quite the trouble. I should thank you, but you know how that goes, don't you?"

She approached him, kicking his disc out of his feeble grip. Then she slammed her boot on him, once again knocking the air out of his system. Beck tried to wrestle her off himself, but he only managed to shake her off-balance for a moment, then she pinned him down with her knee at his chest while holding both his wrists with one hand.

"You're mine now."

Was he really going to end up like this? Derezzed by the girl he loved, after having fought for her life and failing, yet again, to open her eyes to the truth? In a fleeting moment which, to him, seemed endless, while he watched the buzzing disc descend, every memory of her flickered through Beck's exhausted mind. Their first battle, the feeling of being electrified by her very touch. Outrunning a wall of fire with Paige pressed tightly to his back. Her tending to his wound on the derezzing island, the one time she actually smiled at the Renegade. Getting an almost friendly wink from her during a skirmish on the ship, their battles having turned into something of a game. The two of them bickering and then working side by side on the train to Bismuth, her relief when he had showed up from the rubble. Sitting together on top of the Argon Bridge, calmly conversing about different perspectives, then playing pool, opening up to each other as her mask slipped and beneath was the lovely girl who had made him so happy. Finally, the last image in his head was a furious Paige rejecting him on that very same bridge, crushing any hopes he had harbored to turn her.

Then all went dark.


	4. Memories

Wearily, she leaned on the wall, feeling as if her body could disintegrate any moment. The events of the last milicycle had left her devastated, mentally even more so than physically, and that was saying something, since she had nearly gotten derezzed. Yet Paige had no time to think about that now, nor did she want to. Her fingers grabbed her disc and detached it from her back. She started to scroll through the most recent memories - her escape from Tesler's ship. The holograms showed nothing aside from the black form of the light jet (how ironic, Paige thought). She had deactivated the lights of the vehicle as well as her suit in order to avoid detection, but the Renegade's white-clad body, slumped on the jet between her and the jet's yoke, wasn't helping. At least the blue glow of Argon should have concealed her somewhat. She had flown high and dived almost straight down once she reached her destination, barely managing to secure the rebel's body so he wouldn't plummet down into the streets of Purgos. The girl ended watching the memory video and sighed in relief. No occupation jets or choppers were visible on the recording, behind or in front of her. It seemed Pavel's grunts had been way too busy to clean up the lower levels of the district.

A chuckle escaped Paige's lips. What better place to hide than under the very nose of her obnoxious former coworker. And her flat had the nice feature of including a small balcony, perfect for landing from a jet by jumping. Well, her wounded leg had protested, but she had made it into one piece. The ex-commander looked about. The apartment was really a nice place, small but cozy, and she had been able to purchase it for a far better cost than expected. Of course, this being Purgos, she had learned after asking around that it had belonged to some siren who had recently been derezzed. Yet the voxels were not on her hands, so it had been a bargain. Pavel had not been appointed district governor when she had moved in, but regardless, he would never think to look for her here, in a siren's apartment. Still, one more precaution was never unnecessary, especially with the Renegade in the house. She tapped a button on the wall and the broad windows turned opaque black, becoming solid walls and isolating her from Purgos and Purgos from her.

Paige crouched down beside the bed, where she had left the Renegade, lifted him off the berth, detached his disc and and started inspecting his wounds. She was of two minds about whether or not to save him, but soon decided that if she didn't to anything now, her choice would already be made. On the other hand, she could always reconsider and derez him while he was still weak. The damage wrought by Tesler's gauntlets was extensive, resulting in a deep gash in the Renegade's chest where the voxels weren't glowing blue, but white-hot, and she had noticed that some of them had chipped off and fallen during the flight. What bare skin was visible was still lined with that blue grid, the kind a program usually got nanocycles before deresolution. It made her shudder. He could be conscious beneath his stupid mask and feel the agony. Better if he was not. Paige sighed, produced a portable microscope from her clothing and started to inspect the wound for microviruses.

Healing his wound on that island had been easy business, not comparable to the challenge she was up to now. Paige traced the main glitches, barely managing to block their effects and prevent further physical data deletion. After that was done, she started a mental data diagnostics check. As the holograms started to flicker before her eyes, the girl was severely tempted to access the rebel's memory bank, but then decided that with the one belonging to Tesler she'd had more than enough dreadful revelations for one milicycle. Besides, she would find out what she needed anyway. Grimly, Paige proceeded with her work. Her inner soldier was clashing with her nature as a medic. When it came to an enemy, both had the habit of asking questions after action, but while the primary response of the warrior in her was to derez, the medic would rush to heal. Yet, she was unsure if the soldier part of her was still functional. Tesler had been manipulating her during all this time, and now that her loyalty to him was destroyed, she could see how far his actions were from the utopian rhetoric he used to describe his rule. Clu seemed no different, his arrival marked with administering punishments and asserting domination, a far cry from the benevolent image he tried to project. So she could hardly find in herself the motivation to fight for tyrants and murderers, and as the military commander in her was losing purpose, the medic remained. Maybe it was her true programming after all. Saving someone's life is still important to me, she had told Beck, and it was true. Few things on the Grid felt as good as that.

When the check was over, Paige gasped. Whole chunks of The Renegade's mind were not just deleted, but corrupted - luckily only motor control functions, for now. That was still reversible, if slowly. She didn't know whether to curse Pavel or Tesler for that. Regardless, she had to act quick, otherwise he would be locked into a body that had a demented mind of its own, and that was a nightmare she didn't wish to anyone. Well, perhaps except for her greasy-haired former coworker. Her own leg reminded her that it, too, needed medical attention, but she ignored it. The clumsy excuse for treatment she had managed back at the ship would have to do for now.

Her mind was a mess and the pain, fatigue and the storm of emotions didn't let her concentrate. Twice she almost deleted important code pathways while erasing corrupted data. She needed to relax. With a sigh, Paige outstretched her left hand to the nearby table and tapped a button on her trusty monome player. Tranquil music filled the room, music she herself had composed while she had been a simple medic back at Gallium. Precisely what she needed to become again now. A medic helping a program to survive. The ghost of a smile appeared on her lips as she deleted bit after bit of reddening, corrupted data. No matter how vicious a criminal he was, the Renegade had saved her, and she owed him.

How many times had it been, actually? As much as Paige didn't want to let the question scratch inside her system files, it still did. So she started counting. First there was the explosion in the tunnels. Granted, that one was his own fault, but if he was such a vile crook, he would just have left her there. Then the sinking island. Despite what she had so ardently insisted before Beck, the girl wasn't certain that the white-clad vigilante had so readily abandoned her to her doom. After that came her duel with Pavel, where she had insisted before herself that she must not feel grateful toward the rebel. But the concern the Renegade had shown for her safety now, not a whole milicycle ago when they were fighting Tesler, almost reminded her of Beck. She had felt a tinge of that back on the ship, when he had, against all reasoning, insisted to get her out.

Beck as the Renegade. It was just impossible to imagine, laughable even. The laid-back, carefree mechanic wearing the white suit, brandishing a disc and slicing black guards to cubes. Come to think of it, had she ever seen the Renegade derez anyone? He always kicked them around until he could break free, and then disappeared. She had seen the footage of his recent acts of terror as encoded in the memories of several witnesses, but after the incident with Gorn, Paige was none too keen on trusting memory files. But then the memories poured inside her mind, uninvited. How the Renegade never actually pointed a weapon at her and only blocked her blows. How he was mysteriously gone while she was out with Beck. Users, even touching him felt similar to Beck. Where did a mechanic gain such a muscled and lean physique, anyway? Not to mention the ability to climb on and jump off trains? Paige's hand trembled involuntarily and the scalpel made a nasty scratch on the Renegade's skin.

"Scratch. Loss of turn."

Why was she reminiscing of her and Beck's date now? She tried to push the thought away like a picture on a touch screen, but it remained there. Why had the normally calm and collected Beck panicked so, enough to scratch the pool table? From a simple remark that he didn't have to wear a mask all the time, like her. Paige's gaze fell on the Renegade's black, opaque visor. No. She was just projecting her doubts. It was ridiculous. Was it, a tiny voice inside her head retorted immediately. How could he skydive so well if he had never done it before? She thought back to the first encounter with the Renegade, when he had busted her chopper's engines and taken a skydive. When she had asked Beck whether that was his first time, he hadn't said yes.

Suddenly, it all started to click into place. The "fresh opposite perspective" he had offered her. The talk about programming and that she wasn't truly meant to be an Occupation soldier. The way Beck had twirled the wrench in his hand, just like the Renegade in the crashing chopper a milicycle prior. She should have listened to her instincts then, should have put him in shackles and driven him to his execution. Instead she had, for some unknown reason, flirted with him and let him go. Then there were their interactions on the train. Thinking of that, Paige felt sick. It had all been a fraud. The blasted Renegade had only been trying to smuggle Keller from the train and that's why he had romanced her. She had been such a fool, to fall into his trap.

Wasn't this the second time this milicycle that she had berated herself for being foolish? Paige took a deep breath and tried to relax. Maybe she was just overanalyzing. Maybe the Renegade was not Beck, but someone else entirely. Either way, she wouldn't find out if his code deteriorated and disappeared right in front of her while she was blaming herself for being so gullible. Biting her lower lip out of anxiety, she continued scraping the bad data until the only color of the vigilante's pixel glow was bluish white. She applied some regeneration plugins on his wounds and bandaged them. It was time for her to tend to herself.

Tesler's tricks had wrought serious damage to her body too. She had managed to rebuild the core structure of her leg, but the voxels around it were a transparent mess, flickering in an angry orange. The rest of her wounds - on the shoulders, chest, face and back - were still having a voxel or two chipping off every other microcycle. Bug it, she thought. Despite being a former army commander, Paige had not forgotten about her feminine side. She really liked her sleek curves, especially those of her long legs every male, and probably some female programs always traced up when they met her, and to have her figure so gruesomely deformed wounded not only her body, but her pride as well. Slowly, the transparent code solidified as she scripted command after command into her disc, until finally she was whole again, with restored limbs, beauty and self-esteem. Her energy, however, was depleted, and Paige fell asleep on the armchair without even realizing it.

She woke up to the clattering sound of her tools being knocked down to the floor. Her eyes fluttered open and she jolted from the chair. The Renegade was trying his best to escape without making noise. Paige's first impulse was to stop him, but then she remained where she was, barely containing a laugh. Good thing she had furnished the apartment in a spartan way, without much decoration and fancy embellishments. The rebel's movements were still too jerky and uncontrolled and he stumbled about with the grace of a tank. It would take some time before he regained full control of his motor activity.

"Save your strength", she said quietly. "And don't try to escape."

He either didn't hear or outright ignored her, somehow made it to the door and smashed in it in the most ungraceful way. After he banged his shoulder into the solid surface for the third time, she rushed to him, caught him by the arm and pulled him back into the living room.

"I said don't. Try. To escape", she punctuated, annoyance creeping into her voice. "You're safer here than anywhere outside right now."

The Renegade grunted, wresting himself away from her grip.

"Some safety", he grumbled, activating his disc. "Last thing I remember is you trying to safely derez me."

Paige paused for a moment, barely avoiding his clumsy attack. Never before had she heard him sound so jaded. It hit her now that he had always talked to her in a pleading, almost friendly tone, like someone who would rather avoid a fight. Now his voice reminded the medic of her own self after Tesler had found her in the Gallium hospital. Wary, bitter and hostile. Betrayed. As she effortlessly dodged another blind swing, she realized. The Renegade had, for some reason, trusted her, though she had always antagonized him. You're not like them, he had told her at the Argon Bridge when he had tried to recruit her. She had refused to believe it then, convinced that he was an agent of chaos and Clu and Tesler were paragons of order and perfection. And now, just as he had proven right about her not belonging with them, Paige had broken his trust. She had tried to kill him when he had saved her.

The girl tackled the white-clad program and pinned him to the wall, much like she had done with Beck aboard the train to Bismuth. The sensation was actually too similar. But she left her suspicions about the Renegade's identity aside and focused on disarming him. With him far from fully healed, it wasn't very difficult and after a few nanocycles his disc rolled on the floor, while Paige continued to hold him pinned to the wall.

"If you're going to derez me, just get on with it already", he snarled.

"I'm not going to, so stop and relax", Paige answered, gentler than intended. "Good, now behave", she added before releasing him.

"Why didn't you finish me back at the ship?", he asked, angrily shaking himself free from her grip. "You certainly seemed eager to do it."

Paige sighed and closed her eyes for a moment. He wasn't going to believe this.

"I was hallucinating." It was half-true. In her wounded state, her mind had mixed her perceived enemy with the actual one. She had still been angry with the Renegade, though. "I was still seeing Tesler before me instead of you. It's a glitch that happens after a very stressful experience, and you can agree I had just gone through one."

"Funny", he sneered, wobbling on his feet, "I didn't see Tesler swinging his disc at me after my near-deresolution experience. Or if I did, he was very feminine."

He had to make stupid jokes even after a near-death experience, didn't he. Paige took a deep breath and pointed to the chair. A new idea popped up in her head. Perhaps she could trick him into showing his face.

"You'd better sit down. I don't intend to derez you, torture you or turn you in to Clu. I'm already a wanted fugitive myself. So have a seat and regain some of your strength. I'll make you something."

"That's some change in the attitude", the Renegade sneered again, "from attempted deresolution to offering drinks. Almost like you're hitting on me. Or is it the guilt talking?"

So much for unmasking him. Paige growled. No energizing drinks. Awake for just a few micros and he was already pissing her off.

"Yes", she started, irritated, "it is the guilt talking. Are you happy now?"

To her own surprise, her voice was shaking and a tear ran down her cheek. The Renegade didn't fail to notice and relaxed his posture, looking almost apologetic now. That only angered the ex-commander further and she wiped the glistening tear from her face. Outlaw or not, she was still a soldier and couldn't afford to show any more weakness.

"Only now I had time to think over my past encounters with you", the girl continued in a calmer tone, seating herself on the berth across him. "As someone...", she paused, searching for a word to call Beck without giving away his relationship with him, which wasn't even clear to her right now, "as someone close to me said, I looked to things from a fresh perspective. You saved my life more than once, though each time you did have ulterior motives. But now on the ship you just didn't seem to have one. You could have left me to turn to cubes, but you risked being vaporized by Tesler's cannon to make sure I got my disc, even when it wasn't your best move. You didn't flee when he was kicking the life out of me, even though you had the chance. And after I snapped out of my hallucinations, I had no choice but do the same for you. You confuse me, Renegade, and I want to put a stop to this."

She didn't say it quite like she had intended. Her words had sounded far too soft, almost naïve, and he caught the change as well, leaning in to listen. But then she let herself speak freely, appearing more trusting than she was, saying her more innocent thoughts aloud, but hiding her doubts and suspicions. Maybe that was a better way to get some answers without needing to ask the questions.

"So you patched me up", Paige could swear the Renegade was raising an eyebrow beneath his mask, "after I was nearly derezzed? Don't you need to be a fully trained medic to do something like that? I doubt soldiers have that much time to learn about medical care."

He was hinting at the island episode, citing her word for word. Thinking he was sneaky. Well, if he really was Beck, he wasn't being too subtle about it.

"I don't see why not to tell you", she sighed, running her fingers through her hair. "I was a medic once."

"How's your leg?", he inquired after a short but awkward silence. "I've seen programs with half-derezzed limbs which remain that way for a very long time."

"Half-rerezzed in my case", she chuckled darkly, "and how very encouraging of you. No, it's getting better, but I still can't kick you in the face with it. Just in the abdomen."

What was that? Paige scowled. She was getting carried away with this friendly chat. Flirting wasn't part of her plan. She decided to change the direction.

"I guess you still haven't given up on recruiting me."

The Renegade shrugged, but could not fool her. He was still hoping.

"You do realize I can't join you if I don't know who you are and what you're fighting for", she demanded. "Why did you start all of this? And don't tell me you're Tron. I'd know if you were."

He tried to retain an air of confidence, but evidently failed.

"What makes you think I'm not Tron?"

"You know", Paige began, "when I was younger, in my early beta stage, back in my home city, I'd often go at martial arts demonstrations."

"And?"

"Usually among the programs who performed the most advanced techniques, there was one from the old system - Yori, Tron's spouse." She studied the Renegade, who was sitting motionless, neither his pose nor his mask betraying any emotion. A tough program to crack. Paige let the memories engulf her, allowing herself a small smile. "She could knock down a squadron of guards like nobody's business. She was my idol back then."

The self-proclaimed 'Tron' continued to sit like a statue.

"If you were Tron, I'd never be able to beat you in a fight. He was her only equal."

His head made a quizzical tilt to the right.

"Don't feel offended", Paige smirked, "I can't say you're a slouch either. Just not on par with what the real Tron would be like. You've made a habit of being quite a nuisance for me when I'm sent to deal with you."

Did she just make a backhanded compliment to the Renegade? Then again, it wouldn't be the first time. Now she just had to hold her composure and not blame him of being Beck right to his face.

"Don't forget you owe your life to that nuisance."

"I do", she agreed, "and this time, as you see, I'm expressing my gratitude without attacking you, but that still doesn't make you Tron. If you were, you would have obliterated Tesler all on your own. You're my equal in skill, I acknowledge that. But I'm no Yori and you're no Tron."

"Okay, you got me", Paige saw the surrender in his posture and smirked. "No point in pretending further, I am not Tron. But that still doesn't make him dead."

"I had you from the beginning", she chuckled, "and now that we've established that you're not Tron, why don't you tell me who you are and why you are doing this?"

* * *

Pavel ran his fingers through his greasy hair, snarling. He was spending a second milicycle in a row without leaving his quarters. Tesler's orders to subdue the rebelling mechanics had been interrupted by Clu himself. At least he had been able to watch the geezer's execution. Tesler had started to seriously grate on Pavel's code pathways as of late. Giving him the harder assignments, tasking him with overseeing Purgos, confiscating his weapon, berating him in front of Paige... That his own disc had ended up embedded in his chest had been a much satisfying view for Pavel. Not so much for the oh-so-perfect Paige, though. But that had only increased the entertainment value of the experience.

Paige. Once Pavel had thought quite highly of her. He had fancied her, and how could he not. A program with such looks was a rare thing, especially in the army. Most women preferred to be distressed damsels or obedient servants, but not her, oh no. She was a capable warrior, no doubt about that, and when she had been enlisted in his unit, at first he had admired her skills. How a paltry medic had managed to obtain such agility and grace, Pavel would never know. He despised medics as a whole. A truly independent program would relish every chance to trample the competition in the dust, not waste their energy to heal and serve the others. Pavel had learned this lesson well as a young program during his time in the backstreets of Tron city. He had been a laughing stock of all the thugs from the neighborhood, much like that one-bit-minded mechanic, Zed. But he, Pavel, had not been soft like Zed. He had learned to be tough, and cunning, and vicious. To fight, scheme, bribe and racket his way to a higher position, and it had paid off. And if that glitch, Paige, had had a properly working set of system files, she would have flocked to him when he had first unveiled his sympathies to her. Together, they could have overthrown Tesler and ruled - General Pavel and his gorgeous mistress, her cold beauty a token of his power and status, for only a powerful program could afford to have such a woman.

But Paige's good looks and her combat skills had obviously turned out to be all there was to her. She had rebuked his advances, had turned down his offers to sacrifice her intimacy for the power he could have given her. And she had been an unprofitable investment as well. Pavel had showered her with gifts while she was serving under him, gifts she had no lawful right to refuse, and yet she had - cosmetic add-ons, all kinds of glittering textures for her light suit, various upgrades, even vehicles, however unfeminine that kind of gifts was. He had then switched his tactics and tried a more straightforward, physical approach - a commoner was perhaps suited to rougher forms of courtship. It was, after all, her moral obligation, as he had previously defended her from several of the privates from his unit - to give herself to him, her savior. Instead of appreciating his chivalry and rewarding him as he deserved, she had had the audacity to retaliate and then filed a complaint straight to Tesler, disregarding her direct superior. And things had changed drastically then. Pavel, who had up to this point been the general's right-hand program, was discarded in favor of that wretch. He personally suspected - no, he was certain - that Paige had offered to the general what she had denied to him. How else could one explain her sudden promotion from private to battalion commander? She had even started to dress absolutely frivolously, strutting on high heels and showing off her body to her soldiers to keep them hypnotized in line and to Tesler to gain favors from him. Alas, that had made her no less attractive to Pavel, quite the opposite even, but now next to the desire a hatred burned in him and ever since then he had been planning her downfall. Oh how sweet it would be to have her at his mercy once again, and this time he would not be soft and kind.

His dreams of retribution were interrupted by two sentries knocking on the door.

"What?", he shrieked at the soldiers. "Out with it!"

"You are to report to the throne room immediately, sir."

"Excuse me, soldier", Pavel asked in a deceptively quiet voice, "could you repeat that with the respectful tone that your commander deserves?"

"Clu's personal order, Commander", the one sentry muttered, "he demanded that we cite it to the letter and return unscathed with you."

No punching bags, how nice. Pavel balled his hands into fists and, seething with fury, marched along the corridor with the sentries.

Clu lounged on Tesler's throne, seemingly undisturbed by the appalling view Pavel arrived to. Spread across the hall, twenty or so workers were trying to repair the damage, and it was indeed extensive. The throne room looked as if a battle had raged in it: remnants of a column were rolling on the floor together with broken control panels, the throne itself was chipped, and one half of the walls was littered with program-sized holes blasted in it. Pavel knew the work of the weapon he personally had devised for Tesler. He suspected that the general was right now in the state of a voxel pile which stood a bit to the right of himself.

"You have summoned me, Your Excellency", he groveled as he fell to one knee.

"Mhm", Clu mused, sipping from the energy cocktail he was holding. "Pavel, is it, do you know that you're in command of this vessel?"

"Sir?"

The ruler of the Grid narrowed his eyes.

"You clearly have an imperfect understanding", Pavel froze at the sound of the blasphemous word, "of the events on this ship during the past milicycle. Now, should we leave that unremedied?"

Pavel bulged his eyes, unable to say a word.

"No, man, of course not", Clu continued his monologue, "but as you can see, this hall is like a metaphor for the entire city you now have under your control", he made a grand gesture, encompassing the ruined throne room, "imperfection upon imperfection."

"Allow me to ask, Your Excellency, what has become of Commander Paige?"

Clu wrinkled his nose, as if he had sensed a very unpleasant smell.

"The program Paige is now an outlaw. But why hear the story from me, not in perfect detail, when you can witness it?" Never ceasing to smile, he gestured toward the large pile of voxels, among which an identity disc could be seen. "Disc!"

Dyson, who was standing nearby, took the disc and tossed it to Pavel. The commander activated the holoprojector and played the last video, barely containing himself not to laugh with glee to the suffering of Paige, the Renegade and finally Tesler.

"So you see, dear Pavel", Clu drawled, "we have a quite unpleasant situation. A devastated throne room, a derezzed general and a runaway commander. Which leaves you in charge."

Pavel gulped, afraid to show any reaction, be it complaint about his new responsibilities or joy for his new position.

"Dyson here tells me that a sentry has seen a jet black... hm, light jet fly away in direction of Purgos. That was your district, Commander, if I recall correctly?"

The greasy-haired commander nodded hastily.

"Now", the System Administrator continued in his fatherly tone, "we could make this perfect. You know, for both of us. If you bring me the Renegade, I'll make you General of Argon. And if you capture Paige...", his smirk extended and he winked, "well, some programs are their own reward, man, aren't they?"

A greedy flame flashed in Pavel's eyes, but he hurried to cover it with an expression of the utmost eagerness to please and bowed to the floor.

"Right away, Your Magnificence."

Clu waited for him to stand up, rose from his seat, walked up to him, clapped him on the shoulder and shook him with a look that could be either reassuring or threatening. Or perhaps both, or neither. Pavel didn't presume to read into Clu's expressions.

"Good", the ruler smiled again, "now go and prepare your jet squadron."

Not five micros later, commander Pavel was soaring in the skies above Purgos, swiping at his arm-mounted holopad. He was almost certain now that Paige lived in Purgos, if she had headed there while heavily wounded and with an unconscious passenger. Paige. The last time he had seen her outside the ship, she had been on a date with that piece-of-malware mechanic with the cocky attitude and the spiky hair, Deck or Geck or whatever. He had taken special pleasure in ruining their pretty little date. Well, last cycle their date, next cycle their lives. He reminded himself that he hated mechanics too, just as much as he did medics.

He scrolled and scrolled and scrolled through all kinds of registers, until he stumbled upon the list of immobile property purchases. Among the last ones there was an apartment of a siren, Lux, recently derezzed, which was sold to a program named Paige. A ceiling apartment, quaint, with a balcony. He could even see it from here and blast it to smithereens with his missile launcher, but alas, he needed them both alive. But if all else failed...

Pavel cackled and dove straight down.

* * *

"So", Paige sighed, "I ask you for the last time, 'Not-Tron', how do you expect me to trust you if I don't even know who you are?"

"Did you ask Tesler who he was before you trusted him?"

Beck knew he was hitting a code pathway, but he still asked her. The girl's gaze fell.

"I was just waking up and the first thing I learned was that my friends were murdered along with all medical staff except for me", she protested. "Do you think straight in such a moment?"

He barely restrained himself from putting his hand on hers.

"I had to."

She frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"I had to remind myself to not give in to emotions when they derezzed a friend of mine, otherwise me and my other friends were sure to follow", he said, remembering Bodhi's death again. "That's the first thing the Occupation did when they came into Argon. It's why I started the rebellion."

He detached his disc and showed her the memory of Bodhi's deresolution, stopping just before his own voice entered the recording.

Paige's gaze softened.

"I'm sorry for your loss. But because of it you just decided that it's a good idea to make programs believe Tron's alive?"

"Yeah, I did. And then I met him."

The girl raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

"You mean to tell me..."

"It's true, Paige. The words 'Tron lives' are not just some mantra I like to write on the walls."

"Suppose that's true, what's Tron's role in this? Why doesn't he fight by himself?"

"He couldn't until recently. He was incapacitated, that's why he had to train me."

"Did he train you how to murder innocent programs as well?" The question struck Beck like it was Dyson's light whip.

"Answer the question."

He tensed. That talk again. After nearly meeting his end at the hands of Tesler, he really didn't feel like talking about Cyrus.

"This was not my doing", he finally muttered.

"And whose doing was it then? Did the programs derez themselves? Or do you mean to tell me there's another white-clad, Tron-emblazoned program that goes on a rampage through the city?" Paige's voice was raising with every word, until she was towering above him, disc in hand, and seized him by the throat. "I don't care how many times you've saved my life, if I find out you've really done this, I will derez you, Clu's orders or not."

"Answer, Renegade!", she yelled, bringing the disc to his throat. "Who killed them?"

"The original Renegade."

"You mean the one in the black suit who blew up Clu's statue?" Paige's brow furrowed. "I wonder what happened to him. Now that I think of it, fighting him did feel different. He was less experienced."

Oh, come on now. She had switched the tactic, agreeing to his every word to try and goad him into revealing himself.

"No", Beck laughed lightly, however inappropriate that was, "that was me. But there was one Tron had trained before me."

Paige loosened her grip.

"I'm listening."

He paused, thinking of a way to explain without giving himself away. Too bad he still had to keep his disguise. He wanted to just take off his mask and show her all of his memories so that she could no longer doubt him. But would she accept it? Would she distrust a disc recording because of her frame-up? Would she lash out at him, frustrated that he too had been lying to her? He didn't know. So he gave her the short version:

"This first Renegade went mad at some point. Later he broke free and sought revenge against Tron and me."

The woman pursed her lips, processing the information.

"It's strange, but I do want to believe you. It's not something I'd expect you to do, given all I've seen from you... And you have been framed before."

Not something she'd expect him to do. Beck smirked under the mask. So his normal self's words had rubbed off on her, deny it as she might. That was still something.

"What are you talking about? Hopper's incident?"

She sucked in a breath. Time for her to go through bad memories, apparently.

"No. That time I was thrown into the games... Pavel had implanted a false memory of betrayal inside my head."

Beck shrugged, not understanding the connection.

"That's you being framed, not me. And I do remember it."

"Shut up and listen", she huffed. "He later blamed it on you. He showed me a memory of the program that implanted the fake memory in me, and in it you were ordering him to make me suffer and gloating about how you'd enjoy this..."

Well, that was new.

"What program? I never said that."

"Yeah, even I'm not that blind." She waved her hand dismissively. "The memory just screamed 'faked by Pavel', with his tone and spitting my name and all. You were trying to persuade me to join you just micros before that. And if you did want me to suffer, you've had plenty of possibilities to make it happen. So I guess you're being framed again with those murders. Obviously, the mechanics in Able's garage support you despite one of the victims being their boss, and now I'd trust them more than I would Clu."

The mechanics in Able's garage, huh. Beck half expected his name to be dropped next. So Paige wasn't a lost cause after all. But he still had to keep his hopes in check. He remembered the time on the bridge, when against all logic she had still rejected him.

"Weren't you fighting for order and perfection? For Clu?"

The woman regarded him warily. Oops. She had said that on their date, not to his Renegade self.

"I never told you that I fight for Clu, but yes, until one milicycle ago, I used to. Now I'm not so sure at all."

"Because of Tesler?"

She shuddered.

"Not only. You see, I expected Clu to just come and restore order to the city, to solve its problems... Instead he jammed Tesler's disc into his chest, told me to have a look at it and left him for me to finish off... And everything about him just felt so... wrong. Fear and tyranny and order, yes, but not the order I dream of."

"What do you dream of?"

"I'm not on a date, Renegade", she snapped, "so I won't talk about dreams and ideals. I'll make a gamble and I'll come with you to see whether Tron really lives and if he does, what he is up to. If it's more than sabotaging Clu's operations and causing chaos, maybe this revolution of yours could win me over. But you can't have that without telling me who you are."

She was nothing if not persistent, Beck had to hand it to her. But so was he.

"And what will you do when you know my identity?"

Paige gave a frustrated sigh through clenched teeth.

"Look, you know I can't just go back to Clu and turn you in. And like I said, it's not like I even want to any more."

"So will you join me?"

"I'm still not entirely convinced you're innocent", she raised her voice, visibly exhausted by the need to repeat. Beck was certain she was mentally disintegrating him right now. "If you prove guilty of murder, I still will derez you. But If Tron lives and what you say is true, I'll consider joining you."

"If it's true, you'll consider?" Not nearly what he had aimed for. He had to assume his commanding persona. "That's pretty vague. I need a definite answer. Don't waste my time with half-hearted promises."

That did it. Just as he expected, Paige didn't take well to being cornered.

"Look", her patience was wearing off. "if you're innocent, you risk nothing. I, on the other hand, risk everything by trusting you."

Then suddenly her expression darkened:

"Actually, what's this 'everything' I'm so afraid of losing?", she pondered bitterly. "I have no one left who I care about or who cares about me, so it won't matter to anyone if you turn out to be a liar and I get derezzed. Fine, I've made my decision. Prove your words and I'll switch sides to you."

Mission half accomplished. Beck congratulated himself, but then it hit him. No one she cared about? That was harsh. Beck stood for several nanocycles like he was blasted by Tesler's cannon. In that moment she looked so broken and alone. And did she really forget him that fast?

"You said you have no one. I find that hard to believe", he cajoled. "Come one, don't you have someone that matters to you?"

She shook her head.

"As I told you, my friends were both derezzed. Then in the army I didn't waste time to try and make new ones. Well, I...", she looked at him hesitantly and when she continued, her voice was heavy with sadness. "I was seeing someone recently, but I drove him away because I was too blind to see Tesler's atrocities and he was trying to open my eyes. So I doubt he'll want to be with me again."

He sure does, Beck thought. More than ever.

"I think it's time I take off my mask-" He saw her eyes fix on him and she studied him intensely, as if in expectation. It was like the look she had thrown him back at the ship, when he had declared not to leave her to her death, only now he thought he saw hope in it. Was she finally connecting the dots?

All of a sudden, someone knocked on the door. Several times.

"This is Commander Pavel! Open up!"

Paige and Beck gasped and bolted to their feet.

"Wonderful", she grumbled, "the malware has figured out where I live."

She started fidgeting around the room, collecting vehicle and weapon batons and tucking them into her boots and armbands.

"Hey", she said, "Feeling better already? You'll have to cover for me while I pack my stuff."

"Not at the top of my game", Beck said, "but I'll manage."

Beck checked to see if Zed's baton was in his boot. Miraculously, it was. He looked at Paige, only to see her collapsing a photo and a strange box with many buttons into a small box and put them into a shoulder-mounted satchel. Strange choice of items for abandoning ship.

"What are you looking at?", she glowered at him.

"Nothing", Beck decided that was the safest answer.

"Catch", the girl said and threw him a jet baton, "I'll trust you to do the flying. Careful, I only have one. Here's staff, too", she added and tossed him a staff baton.

"I'd much rather go by light cyc-" Beck couldn't finish, as he saw a shower of sparks coming from the door. An instant later, Pavel and his black guards poured into the apartment. Eight of them, wearing heavy armor. That was some relief. At least they would be slow in close quarters.

"Paige, Renegade! What a delightful surprise to see the two of you! In the name of Clu", the commander yelled at the top of his lungs, "you are both under arrest. Seize them!"

* * *

Pavel's lips stretched in a smirk. Finally, it had come. The moment to wipe the floor with the loathsome Paige and teach her respect. And the Renegade was his ticket to the seat of an army general, an additional prize.

"Hiding from me in Purgos, my own district?", he laughed. "How very clever of you, Paige. Now I will finally award you the punishment you deserve for the vile program you are - a traitor and an enemy of the state!"

She looked panicked, pulling her disc and baring his teeth. No witty retorts this time, eh. The Renegade drew his disc as well.

"Seize the Renegade", Pavel barked at his henchmen, "the traitor's mine".

Something was telling him that was a wrong move, but Pavel ignored it. If he let the Renegade slip, he would, at the very least, lose the position of general, and with it, the chance to get his hands on the upgrade disc again. But the temptation was too great - he had lonhed to see Paige in shackles since long before they came to Argon, and now he had his golden opportunity. The Renegade was weak anyway.

Disc in hand, he strode toward his former colleague, taking in her frightened expression. With the corner of his eye he saw the eight guards prodding at the Renegade with their staves, which he desperately tried to evade. He was resilient, Pavel had to admit. But that was of little consequence now. His true prize awaited him. Pavel swung, she parried, then went on the offensive, unleashing a barrage of hits on him. Pavel blocked them all, studying her. Something was different. Too busy protecting himself, he couldn't pick up what, but the sensation scratched inside his head. A possible key to victory. But for now he didn't know what it was. It was annoying him and that was a rather unwelcome distraction, so he tried to shut the thought out and concentrate on defeating Paige.

Meanwhile, the Renegade grabbed a chair and smashed it into another guard, toppling him. As another two kept the white-clad rebel occupied, the fallen soldier tried to get up, only to be met head first by Pavel's disc.

"Halfwits", the commander slurred. "If you want something done right, don't leave it to guards."

Picking up the guard's weapon, he charged against Paige. Even without the upgrade disc, he felt fierce and strong as he swung the staff. Paige blocked his blow, and the next, and the one after that, but each parry was lower and weaker than the one before and she had stepped a few paces back, gritting her teeth. Her left leg was quivering and after a few blows it started to flicker whenever she parried, becoming more and more translucent. But of course, that was what he had noticed. She wasn't kicking. She was still weak from the fight with Tesler. A perfect opportunity.

"Get back where you crawled out of, Pavel, I have no time for you", she managed to spit between the blows, panting. Not quite as cocky as usual.

Confidence surged through Pavel's circuits at the realization. He didn't need an upgrade to wipe the floor with her. With a savage cry, he deflected her attack and brought his staff down. The woman tried to dodge, but the weapon collided with her head. She screamed and tried to hit him, but Pavel was faster. With strength that amazed even him, he swept the staff under her injured leg, knocking her to the floor. He gripped the weapon like a spear and a predatory grin as he pointed the staff to her chest.

"I do admit you are quite attractive, Paige", he leered, "but you'll look even better as a pile of cubes."

"Lame pickup line as always, Pavel", she said dryly, glaring at him.

He wasn't quite sure whether he wanted to kill or capture her at the moment. But let her cower in fear. It was so delightful.

"Or I could take you back with me", he mused aloud, tracing her curves as he had done so many times. "Show you your rightful place in the hierarchy!"

His former co-worker kicked the staff away. Her lip curled.

"Just don't drool over me, it'd make me commit suicide", she snorted while trying to get up. He just clobbered her with the staff again and she plopped to the ground. That glitch. He had forgotten how infuriating she could be. Another whack that met her leg and left a glowing bruise, then one more. For the next micro or so Pavel relished every damaged voxel appearing on Paige's body as she ever so helplessly tried to evade his blows. She was giving in to exhaustion. Such a sweet picture.

"I am so going to enjoy this", he giggled. Oh, it was so fun. "Slowly beating you down. Where is your Renegade now, dear Paige?"

"Right here", a low, even voice said moments before Pavel felt something hit the back of his head. "So you wanna have some fun?"

Pavel simmered in anger. Seven of those idiots in full armor and that stupid white clown was still alive and kicking. Well, they would not be, not for long.

"I'm not interested, Renegade, I prefer my current dancing par-"

"No, no, I insist", the rebel said icily as he grabbed the commander by the neck and shoved him into the wall. "That's no way to treat a lady, don't you know?"

Pavel glowered at him. With a great effort he pulled himself free from the Renegade's hold and kicked at him, then scrambled for his staff. With the corner of his eye he noticed some of the guards regaining consciousness.

"Get up, imbeciles", he barked. "The white knight here wants to give us a lesson in chivalry! We won't make this easy for him and his damsel in distress, shall we?"

To their credit, the guards obeyed, standing up as quickly as they could and assuming a formation that blocked Beck from Paige, trapping him in a corridor of guards with their commander t the end. Meanwhile, the damsel in question had regained some of her strength and tried to get up, only to be seized by two of the soldiers, screaming and helplessly thrashing around. One quick thump at her disc dock, drawing sparks, and she slumped in a heap on the floor. Now it just remained to capture the Renegade...

It seemed the rebel was all but reading his thoughts, as he suddenly lost his calm posture and charged toward him with a roar, knocking the first two guards down before they could react, then took both of their weapons and started to twist them in his hands like helicopter blades as he advanced forward. The soldiers tried to block the attacks, but the Renegade was faster. One guard's visor cracked as the staff hit him, and he fell on the floor, screaming. Another guard charged and his heavy boot trampled his fallen comrade's already distorted face, smashing it into voxels. He was met with the body of the first guard that the Renegade had flung at him, and the two lost their balance and tumbled onto Paige's table, breaking it. The two foremost guards had gotten up and tried to tackle the Renegade, but he turned on his heel, grabbed one by the arm and slammed him head-first into the running sixth guard, then did the same with the first and seventh. The vigilante wasted no time, ran up to them and kicked them with all his strength, sending them right in the direction of Pavel. The commander screamed in anger and indignation as the pile of armor, limbs and staves crumbled on top of him. After a short struggle he managed to pull himself from under them.

"Apologies, sir", one of the guards muttered, but Pavel just stabbed him while he was still down, then the other. They were undeserving of life, those cretins. He proceeded to execute the third with a throw of his disc, but saw something white zoom past him toward Paige.

"Not so fast", Pavel almost sung as he grabbed hold of the Renegade and tugged him to the center of the room. "You defeated my minions, now you'll have a boss fight!"

"I'm sick of you", was the short answer, followed by a staff swing, then a punch, then a kick, and Pavel almost let himself get overwhelmed. Blasted rebellious scum, how dared he. Pavel angrily swiped at the ground where his enemy stood, but the other staff met his again, then twisted it and pinned his hand to the wall. With one quick swing the Renegade severed Pavel's weapon, rendering it useless, then proceeded to punch him. The commander grabbed one of the criminal's hands and tried to throw him, but just then a fist made him cough out all his air. He kicked blindly to the left, where he saw white, and managed to repel the Renegade to a safe distance. Pavel leaned on a cupboard to catch his breath. Such humiliation.

"Paige!" not wasting any time, the Renegade had knelt beside the female program, trying to get her to open her eyes. Paige only mumbled a single syllable and collapsed to the floor again. The white-clad menace looked devastated.

"I will turn you to raw data for this", he snarled, letting go of Paige and advancing toward Pavel.

Not good. Not good at all. Pavel overclocked his system core, trying to find a solution. Another beating from the Renegade and he would surely not be in a state to return to the base. There had to be counter. A workaround to get him out of this situation. Of course. Exploitation of the emotions, that always worked.

"What", he croaked, straightening himself and trying to give himself the appearance of an understanding, knowing friend, "you think she'll come for your help? I know what you're thinking, but she does not care for you, Renegade! She's such a shareware, always sucking up to someone she considers powerful... "

He watched the Renegade freeze, hit by his words. Didn't expect that, did he? They were both so repulsively naïve, Paige and him, so clueless and undeserving of life.

"You are not worth her, Renegade! Do not think she will give herself to you just because you saved her life!", he continued his tirade, pressing his advantage and pouring all his disdain in it. "She is an ingrate, she'll stab you in the back the first chance she gets. And then she'll run back to some worthless program, like that hunk of a mechanic, oh, what was his name..."

He slammed the Renegade's fist aside.

"Oh, yes, I remember his name. Beck!"

* * *

Beck stumbled backwards as Pavel's words rung in his head. Suddenly, his mind was a blur. Pavel's image flickered and jittered, moving in and out of focus and a second image soared over it - one of a black-clad, masked program.

"Beck!", echoed Pavel's scream.

"Beck!", the masked program said at the same time.

Everything was blurred. Where was he? What was happening? Who was this Beck they were talking about?

"Who's Beck?", he asked, frightened.

The black program reached toward him. Pavel did too, leering, disc buzzing in his hand.

"Who are you?", his voice came out of his mouth uninvited, panicked and trembling. "Why are you hiding your face?"

The black program paused, then the image faded, but Pavel stood there, cackling.

"Oh Renegade, are you going mad now? I know you're infatuated with that traitorous scum, but she's not re-"

His litany of jealousy was interrupted by the heel spike of a flickering leg clashing with his temple.

"Renegade!", Paige's voice pulled him out of the haze. "What are you doing? Come to your senses, we have to go!"

Everything shifted into focus. He was Beck, the Renegade, and he was fighting Pavel and his goons alongside Paige. He drew his disc, parried the commander's blow and punched him in the face, leaving him coughing again. Paige grabbed his upper arm, tugging him toward the now open window.

"Come on already", she urged, "jump! I'll keep him away."

He leaped off the balcony into the colorful neon lights of Purgos and rezzed the jet. A few nanos later Paige thumped on the hull and caught him around the midsection, breathing heavily. Back at the apartment Pavel was screaming for reinforcements. Beck ignored it and steered the jet in the direction of the Outlands.

"You had a hallucination", Paige observed. "Sounded like a residual effect of an identity glitch."

"I don't know what you're talking about", he shrugged. It was much too early to reveal himself.

Paige took a breath and obviously prepared to answer him, possibly rant about her medical expertise and not being fooled that easily, but then a low hum filled the sky behind them. They turned and noticed five orange spots hovering high above the city and drawing near. As if on signal, all billboards flickered and changed to Paige's face, with the words "WANTED: PAIGE. ASSASSIN, DEFECTOR, TRAITOR, ENEMY OF THE STATE."

"Great", she snorted, "I'm famous again."

"Get used to it", was the Renegade's only answer.

The buzzing of the enemy jets was getting louder.

"Come on", Beck complained, "that's your best jet? Only two programs on board and it's already that slow."

Paige groaned.

"It's not my fault Pavel and his cronies upgraded theirs", she stated. "I prefer choppers, if you haven't noticed."

"Hasn't worked out very well for you now, has it", he couldn't restrain himself from saying, but that only earned him a punch in the side. Not really with malice, though. He grinned and activated the jet's light wall. He tried to block the way of the guards, but Purgos was a tricky environment and soon Beck and Paige were steered toward a billboard on which Paige was depicted in all her glory. It took him a good half micro to realize that the image was flipped.

"Maybe I should try wearing my hair over my right eye, for once. Either way I make the city beautiful, that you can't deny." He hadn't imagined Paige, of all programs, to crack a joke about her appearance, in front of him. Was she trying to woo him now? Damn that woman.

The five jets spewed a rain of bullets their way, pinning them to the billboard. Beck turned the machine abruptly up and climbed almost vertically, avoiding collision by milimeters. The volley of machine gun fire followed them, slicing the billboard in two just as the picture was switching from Paige to his own masked face. The bisected board now had Beck's mask on one half and Paige's face on the other. It read "WANTED: RENE-PAIGE". The accusations were almost the same, only instead of defector and traitor he was proclaimed a criminal and a saboteur. Beck laughed silently. Renepaige. Maybe he would suggest it as an alias for her once she joined the Uprising. She would probably be mad.

"Hmph, Renepaige", she murmured, obviously not mad. "Sounds like a name for me if I ever get out of this whole."

As much as he wanted, Beck didn't have the time for jokes. The pilots on each flank forced their engines and shot forward, then crossed paths, blocking the pair's way and their left and right with a giant X made of their light walls. Beck shot right through it, but just as the walls became transparent, the other two pilots made a second, narrower X that barred the way up and down. He turned back to see Pavel gleefully pumping his fist in the air. Then the jets descended toward them from all sides – up, down, right and left, and Beck had to do his best to dodge.

"Hey", Paige said, "I've got an idea. Turn back and fly straight to Pavel!"

Had Tesler damaged her systems permanently after all?

"Are you crazy?!", he almost screamed.

"Just do it!", she grumbled and took out her disc. "And don't get hit."

Seeing no bright future ahead of him aside from a knot of light walls, Beck complied and turned the jet around, zigzagging under a rain of eraser code bullets. The guards were hovering in place beside their commander now, evidently puzzled just as much as he was, and as Beck and Paige drew near, the fire was coming more and more from the sides. Just as the streams of bullets entered Beck's peripheral vision, something slammed him hard on the back and the jet spiraled downwards, out of control. Some nanos later he managed to turn the vehicle upside and with the corner of his eye he saw another X-shaped cross. His vision was unfocused and everything was moving slowly.

"That felt good", he heard Paige's voice. Good, was it? Did she try to derez him or what?

"What was that for?", he hollered at her, but then all was muffled by thundering sounds of explosions as the ends of the fiery cross blew up.

"Four down, Pavel to go."

What amazed Beck this time was the coldness of her voice. She had caused the four jet pilots to get caught into each other's fire lanes and fried to cubes.

"You just derezzed four programs, Paige."

She gave a groan, as if to tell him to stop being so naïve.

"All of Pavel's goons are malware. He handpicks them."

Meanwhile, Beck noticed that Pavel had shaken himself from the shock and swooped toward them, screaming and firing blindly. The rebel turned his jet to the right, trying to escape in the jungle of neon signs, but Pavel was surprisingly competent at chasing. He forced them down small back alleys and under bridges and rails, always obliterating whatever obstacles found themselves in the way. Beck was growing tired. Despite his intense training at the hands of Tron, a prolonged aerial battle after barely recuperating from being derezzed by Tesler was getting the better of him. He suspected that Paige was feeling no different, tightly clinging onto his back. His maneuvers were becoming clumsier and Pavel's gatling gun blasts weren't missing so terribly any more.

He felt Paige stir and turned to see what was going on. Another blast came from Pavel's jet and Beck steered the heaved upwards to have more space for dogfighting.

"I'll handle this", Paige declared and, before Beck could say or do anything, she jumped from the jet, with her disc in her hand.

"Paige!"

Beck's desperate cry mixed with Pavel's croak. The defected commander had her arms and legs spread while she fell.

On a collision course with Pavel's jet.

Beck dove, but didn't dare to fire or fly too close. Paige slammed into Pavel's incoming jet. Beck remembered the move from his fight with Cutler's soldiers. The girl's left arm caught her former colleague's throat in a choke hold. He tried to get her off of himself, but she stomped on the vehicle, digging her heel spike in its hull. Beck saw a flash as she activated her disc.

"I'm going to derez you now for everything you did to me, you filthy virus!", she roared with no less hatred than she had had for Tesler.

"Oh, getting dangerous, are we, Paige?", Pavel spat. "Die!"

Paige dodged the staff, but it slammed right into the jet's control panel with enough force to melt it into voxels. The vehicle was all but derezzed by the impact, with the only remaining part of it being the left thruster and the part where Paige had jammed her heel. It too fell into cubes and Pavel and Paige were left in free fall, pulling, kicking and screaming at each other. All was over in half a microcycle, when the girl sent Pavel plummeting on a rooftop with her signature kick to the face and Beck was finally able to swoop in and catch her.

"That was a little excessive", he chided while trying to ignore the sight of Paige's long legs as she hooked one of them behind him and around the jet and used her heel to pull herself to the backseat. Now that was some complex mid-flight acrobatics. He almost jammed into a wall whilst admiring her. "I've saved you how many times this milicycle?"

The girl snaked her hands around his waist. Interesting. He was already getting used to that.

"Equal to the reverse", she said smugly.

The moment of pleasure was short lived as a searing hot ball of plasma swooshed past the jet and blew up a construction site nearby. Beck turned left and saw Pavel standing on a rooftop, aiming at them with his missile launcher. How nice. Didn't the slimy program have a limit to his weapons?

Pavel's mad cackling was piercing the air and a second missile flew. Beck felt the heat even through his mask. The edges of Paige's hair were fried.

"Can't this thing go any faster?, she asked, panicked. "He's gaining on us!"

A third fireball crashed in a sign somewhere behind them and Beck felt small debris hitting his back. He could already hear the sound of Pavel launching the fourth missile. It almost reached them when Beck swung right behind a massive lamp post.

Next thing he knew, they were caught by the blast wave and hurled forward together with the jet which was now glowing blue. Its code was severely damaged. Through the explosion Beck heard Pavel laughing triumphantly, but didn't care.

"Paige?", he asked, afraid to look back.

"I'm fine, don't worry", she answered his unasked question, "but I can't say the same about the jet."

The vehicle let out an angry chittering electronic noise as it flickered between solid and wireframe form. Just like on the island.

"You repaired a lifeboat on the island", Paige cried in his ear as if she was reading his mind, "can't you do something?"

Beck bit back a laugh. They had been almost blasted to raw code and she still had the nerve to remind him of that episode. Not that he minded. On the contrary, it made him like her even more.

"I don't think I could do something impossible like that", he continued the allusion, "even if I were an engineer."

He was half-convinced that Paige had figured out his identity already. No matter. He would reveal himself if they survived this. Now they just needed to lose Pavel. Knowing him, all they needed was to blow up the good-for-nothing jet somewhere behind a corner. He turned the fading machine just in time to avoid a large bar sign that said "2.3+ DRINKS" and steered it above a highway.

Wait. Identity. This seemed familiar. This was where he had nearly lost it. The bar where they had caught Galt, and this highway, and the way it ended, and... He had been here before. He had done that. And he knew what to do now. With one hand, he pulled the light cycle baton out of his boot, then held it with two fingers while still not letting go of the jet's yoke. His left hand clutched Paige's. He noticed her eyes widen in horror as the facade of the building before them grew closer and closer.

"What are you doing, we're going to crash!", her panicked scream barely reached his ears, eaten away by the wind. He dove just a little. Right, sixteenth floor...

"Don't catch the pattern, do you? Switch off your colors."

"You can't dodge a wall with a derezzing jet, Renegade!"

"Hold tight to my hand and mask yourself", he ordered. "And when I say so, hop on my back again."

"What?" She gaped, but followed his command.

"My turn to be crazy", he said moments before he pushed the jet down.

The rumble of the vehicle's explosion, which hopefully didn't kill anyone, mixed with the noise of broken glass as the two crashed into the building's windows. Not letting go of Paige's hand, Beck ran through the hall of what seemed to be a business center. He just knocked aside the confused programs that stood in the way, staring at the Renegade and a masked female program running hand in hand through the foyer, and left them to rub their eyes and shake their heads, mouths agape in disbelief.

"Will you tell me wh-" He hadn't heard her voice with distortion before. It sounded strange. He just ran ahead and, yelling mock-cheerful apologies to the programs around, then approached the window, slowing down a little.

"On my back, now", he said. To his surprise, Paige didn't object, but leaped and threw her hands around his neck, hanging behind him like a cloak. Beck used the force of the impact to regain his speed and burst through the glass. His left hand found the right and he cracked the baton in two, watching the code pour from it and the blue wireframe of the light cycle rez beneath them as if in slow motion. Not two nanocycles later, the vehicle thumped on the road, speeding away from the broken building. Beck reminded to thank Zed for making it so durable.

Behind him, Paige burst into giggles. For a moment the stern military commander was gone and the girl from the pool club was back, not holding a disc to the back of his head like in the tunnels, not demanding him to stop and surrender, but just clinging onto him and laughing in joy that she was alive. She reminded him of Mara after he had rescued her and Zed from execution. Maybe it had to do with avoiding Pavel's rockets.

"I must say that was pretty impressive", the girl finally said as they exited Purgos and she removed her mask. "And Pavel's probably off to report his glorious victory."

Beck snorted. He didn't want to discuss the sleazy commander right now. Paige's comment was a way more interesting topic.

"Last time I heard the word 'impressive' from you it was followed by a kick or something."

She kicked him lightly in the shin.

"One, right now that's a bit hard for me to do" she said wistfully, "and two, it's not always. It's how I asked my boyfriend out the first time."

Curious. She didn't confirm that the last time she had called him impressive was during their first fight. Beck smiled behind the black visor. She was trying to goad him into admitting his identity. But first he wanted to see what she thought about him.

"That boyfriend of yours." Beck really liked the sound of the word from Paige's lips. He must be something to catch your attention."

"Oh, he's quite an impressive mechanic, for one", she stressed the word this time, obviously teasing him, "I bet he could've repaired that light jet instead of crashing into a window and jumping with a light cycle from the sixteenth floor."

"Really", Beck did his best to conceal his amusement. "And I bet he's nothing but a coward if he hasn't even gone looking for you after you were thrown into the games. I dislike him already."

"Actually I think you'd like him. Now I never thought of this before, but you actually remind me of him in more ways than one."

"What, are you comparing him to me now? What could this mechanic boyfriend of yours have in common with good old white masked rebellious me?"

She definitely wasn't buying his efforts to sound annoyed.

"Well, he's strong and brave and handsome, he stands up for those around him, he's clever, funny and resourceful, he doesn't hesitate to risk his life to save others and he's really kind. He's the kind of program that gives others hope when theirs has faded", Paige's dreamy voice caused Beck to blush harder with every word and he was thankful he had his all-concealing mask on, "but I wish he would show me who he truly is without me having to make him admit it."

"You really seem to like him, but that's no comparison", Beck observed dryly, while inwardly giddy. He had just been rained with superlatives from the girl he liked. Even when she almost certainly knew he was the Renegade. But did she mean all that or had she just said it to appease him? Time to act jealous. "I ask again, what does that have to do with me?"

"I could say all those things about you and I'd be right. I never thought I would say this, but I kinda like you when we're not fighting."

Beck's joy was suddenly drowned in a thick shadow of doubt. He heard Pavel's voice in his head. Sucking up to the strongest program around, he had said. And that foul epithet he had called her. Shareware. Was she, really? Beck couldn't, didn't want to believe it. Yet here she was, praising him, while riding cozily on one bike with the Renegade, almost laying on his back. Come on, it wasn't possible. Was he getting jealous of himself? Beck mentally scolded himself for his insecurity. Of course she wasn't that kind of program, he had to know that and Pavel was lying. But still the question tormented him. One way to find out...

"I'm flattered", he said coldly and felt the medic stiffen as she caught the change in his tone, "but I don't think this boyfriend would be glad if he knew you're flirting with the Renegade behind his back."

"You're partly right", He couldn't see Paige's face, but knew by the warmth of her voice that she was smiling, "I am flirting with the Renegade and right now I am standing behind my boyfriend's back. But I do think he'd be glad. Drop it already, Beck. I know it's you."

The helmet collapsed immediately and Beck had never been so happy to take it off. He turned halfway toward her and grinned.

"About time", Paige's grin was mirroring his own.

"Wait", he tried really hard to frown, but that only made Paige smirk, "no 'It's really you'? Aren't you at least a bit surprised? What if it wasn't me?"

She hugged him tighter, buried her face in his hair and giggled against him.

"No chance. You completely gave yourself away when you started fishing for compliments."

"Huh", he did his best to fake disappointment, "You don't mean them, then?"

"Oh, Beck", she leaned in closer and pecked him on the cheek, "you know I do."

Beck was so startled that he dropped the light cycle's handlebars and it swayed dangerously off-road.

"Hey, hey", Paige chided behind him, "that was sweet, but watch where you're going."

"You're not helping", the mechanic mused. "Anyway, I knew I wouldn't be able to do this for long."

"You only did so far because I was blinded by my dogmatic views and because I saw you as a lawful citizen and the Renegade as a destroyer of order. Flynn, you don't even change the highlights on your helmet!"

"So you trust me now? You don't think I'm going to trick you?"

"No, not anymore", she agreed, "I did have my doubts and fears that I'll just be deceived again, but they went away."

"Oh?", Beck raised an eyebrow jokingly. "And what killed them? The flashback?"

The medic shifted uncomfortably. Beck knew her steady beliefs about him had not been shaken until his glitch had resurfaced. But like she would ever admit to being so headstrong.

"It was a... nudge in the right direction", she was definitely feeling awkward, trying to convince him of her trust. "I have been thinking about it as I healed you and then while we were speaking. I mean, my interactions with your Renegade self have always felt all too similar to-"

"Right, right", he laughed, "I was already going to tell you anyway."

They drove in silence for a while. Beck gazed at the road rezzing ahead of them and the sharp crag in the distance that was their destination. He smiled to himself. All he had done, all the fights with her, had been worth it. He had finally won her over. And they could be together.

"So what now, Beck?", the girl's tired voice pulled him from his thoughts. "You just introduce me to Tron and I take my place among the ranks? I doubt it."

"Well", he shrugged, "that's the idea."

She sighed.

"And how's that gonna play out? They'll have their discs at my throat the nanocycle they see me, and they'll be right not to trust me."

Beck wanted so badly to take her into his arms in this moment, to look into her eyes and promise her it was going to be alright, and it vexed him that he only couldn't do that because he was driving.

"No, Paige, they won't trust you right away", he admitted, "but I do. And I'll always be there."


End file.
